The telescope on Earth takes never-before-seen images of Jupiter’s moons; a look

Published on 11/10/2022 17:55

This image shows two of Jupiter’s moons, icy Ganymede and Europa, imaged in infrared using the SPHERE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (credit: ESO/King & Fletcher. Jupiter bac)

A telescope on Earth was able to take detailed pictures of the two largest moons Jupiterand Europa and Ganymede, which will also be future destinations for expeditions to the planet in the solar system.

Jupiter orbits four moons in total, with Europa and Ganymede being the two largest. The former is similar in size to Earth’s moon while Ganymede is the largest moon in the entire solar system.

In the new images, astronomers note how much sunlight is reflected from the surfaces of stars at different infrared wavelengths, resulting in a reflection spectrum. These reflectance spectra were then analyzed by a computer model comparing each observed spectra to spectra of different materials measured in laboratories.

It was stunning images and expert analysis Published in the scientific journal Planetary Science Journal.

what was found

The researchers explained that they have mapped the distributions of various materials on the planet’s surface including the frost of sulfuric acid, which is found primarily on the side of Europa that is heavily bombarded by the gases surrounding Jupiter. “Modeling found that there could be a variety of different salts present at the surface, but indicated that infrared spectroscopy alone is often unable to identify specific types of salt present,” explains Oliver King, one of the study’s authors.

On the other hand, Ganymede notes – recorded by the device sphere In the Very Large Telescope at the European Southern Observatory (ESO), Chile – Show how the topography of the Moon can be divided into two parts: young terrain rich in water and ice and ancient terrain with unknown compositions.

“This allowed us to perform detailed mapping of Europa and Ganymede, observing features on their surfaces less than 150 km in diameter – all at distances of more than 600 million km from Earth. Mapping at such a precise scale was previously possible only by sending spacecraft to Jupiter to observe the satellites closely.

For experts, “these terrestrial observations whet our appetite for our future exploration of Jupiter’s moons,” they assert.

look at the pictures:

Cover by Correio Braziliense

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