The Galilean Satellites
Adam P. Showman,
1
and Renu Malhotra
2
NASA's Galileo mission to Jupiter and improved
Earth-based observing capabilities have allowed major advances in our
understanding of Jupiter's moons Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto
over the past few years. Particularly exciting findings include the
evidence for internal liquid water oceans in Callisto and Europa,
detection of a strong intrinsic magnetic field within Ganymede,
discovery of high-temperature silicate volcanism on Io, discovery of
tenuous oxygen atmospheres at Europa and Ganymede and a tenuous carbon dioxide atmosphere at Callisto, and detection of condensed oxygen on
Ganymede. Modeling of landforms seen at resolutions up to 100 times as
high as those of Voyager supports the suggestion that tidal heating has
played an important role for Io and Europa.
1 Department of Mechanical Engineering,
University of Louisville, 215 Sackett Hall, Louisville, KY 40292, USA.
E-mail: showman{at}flolab.spd.louisville.edu
2 Lunar
and Planetary Institute, 3600 Bay Area Blvd., Houston, TX 77058, USA.
E-mail: renu{at}lpi.jsc.nasa.gov
