Amalthea

Jupiter V

Amalthea [am-al-THEE-uh] is one of Jupiter's smaller moons. It was named after the nymph who nursed the infant Jupiter with goats milk. It is extremely irregular, having dimensions of about 270x165x150 kilometers in diameter. It is heavily scarred by craters, some of which are extremely large relative to the size of the moon. One crater (Pan) measures 100 kilometers across and another (Gaea) 80 kilometers across. The surface has a reddish color apparently caused by a dusting of sulfur originating from Io. Amalthea rotates synchronously with its long axis pointed towards Jupiter.

Amalthea Statistics

Discovered by ........................ Edward Emerson Barnard
Date of discovery ...................................... 1892

Mass (kg) .......................................... 7.17e+18
Mass (Earth = 1) ................................. 1.1998e-06
Radius (km) ....................................... 135x84x75
Radius (Earth = 1) ............................... 2.1167e-02
Mean density (gm/cm^3) .................................. 1.8

Mean distance from Jupiter (km) ..................... 181,300
Rotational period (days) ........................... 0.498179
Orbital period (days) .............................. 0.498179
Mean orbital velocity (km/sec) ........................ 26.47

Orbital eccentricity .................................. 0.003
Orbital inclination .................................... 0.40°

Escape Velocity (km/sec) ............................. 0.0842

Visual geometric albedo ................................ 0.05
Magnitude (Vo) ......................................... 14.1

Views of Amalthea

Amalthea (GIF, 13K)
This image of Amalthea was acquired by the Voyager 1 spacecraft on March 5, 1979. (Credit: Calvin J. Hamilton, and NASA)

Shaded Relief Map of Amalthea (GIF, caption)
This is a shaded relief map of Amalthea, a small satellite of Jupiter. As with all maps, it is the cartographer's interpretation; not all features are necessarily certain given the limited data available. This interpretation stretches the data as far as possible. (Courtesy Phil Stooke)

Jupiter Adrastea Thebe

Author: Calvin J. Hamilton