Jupiter and Three Galilean Satellites

Jupiter, its Great Red Spot and three of its four largest satellites are visible in this photo taken Feb. 5, 1979, by Voyager 1. The spacecraft was 28.4 million kilometers (17.5 million miles) from the planet at the time. The innermost large satellite, Io, can be seen against Jupiter's disk. Io is distinguished by its bright, brown-yellow surface. To the right of Jupiter is the satellite Europa, also very bright but with fainter surface markings. The darkest satellite, Callisto (still nearly twice as bright as Earth's Moon), is barely visible at the bottom left of the picture. Callisto shows a bright patch in its northern hemisphere. All three orbit Jupiter in the equatorial plane, and appear in their present position because Voyager is above the plane. All three satellites show the same face to Jupiter always -- just as Earth's Moon always shows us the same face. In this photo we see the sides of the satellites that always face away from the planet. Jupiter's colorfully banded atmosphere displays complex patterns highlighted by the Great Red Spot, a large, circulating atmospheric disturbance.