NATS 1570 Lecture Notes - Lecture 25: Galilean Moons, Tidal Locking, Ocean Deep
Document Summary
Jupiter has many moons, but here we focus on the four large ones - io, europa, Jupiter"s gravity and magnetic field interact with its moons. As a results io is one of the most active bodies in the solar system. Jupiter has four large moons that are usually referred to as the galilean moons" after their discoverer. This moons are in the size range for our own moon. Far near to far they are io (yellow), europa (blue and brown), ganymede (brown and gray) and calisto (red). For jupiter"s moons, jupiter"s strong gravitational field affect them significantly in a couple of different ways. These moons are tidally locked to jupiter. Jupiter"s gravity also affects its moons more indirectly. Jupiter"s gravity is strong enough to cause tidal heating. This means that the rock of the planets flexes in response to the gravitational pull, the same way earth"s water moves due to the moon.