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Voyager3 — Jupiter
Published: 2011-08-29 08:34:01 +0000 UTC; Views: 497; Favourites: 5; Downloads: 22
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Description
Eclipse in progress. Searching moon... Io.----------
Actually, I have no way of knowing which moon causes that eclipse. See the black spot? That is the shadow of the moon.
Being the biggest planet in the Solar System, Jupiter has certain important duties. It was for a long time thought that Jupiter was a comet-capturer. Many of it's 63 moons are small, some might be comets. The collision of Shoemaker-Levy 9 in 1994 confirmed that view.
It also keeps the asteroid belt from coalescing and forming a new fifth planet from the Sun. It actually flings some asteroids towards the inner planets, sometimes with catastrophic consequences.
It keeps the volcanoes on Io going. Io is in a perfect 4:2:1 orbital resonance with respectively Europa and Ganymede. This has made its orbit an ellipse, and creates strong tidal forces. This bends its core, and keeps it heated.
It's wallpaper size, feel free to use it.
Picture by Galileo.
