Amalthea, Jupiter’s third Moon

On September 9, 1892, astronomer Edward Emerson Barnard discovered the third moon of Jupiter, which was named after the Greek nymph Amalthea (Αμάλθεια) by French astronomer Nicolas Camille Flammarion (26 February 1842 – 3 June 1925).

Amalthea orbits Jupiter in a very tight orbit and although it is a tiny moon at just over 250km by 128km by 146km, Amalthea would appear massive in the sky over Jupiter. Barnard made the discovery using the 36 inch telescope at the Lick observatory, and was the last satellite to be discovered with direct observation rather than photography.

Images of Amalthea and Jupiter Illustration courtesy NASA used under a Creative Commons 3.0 license and images in the Public Domain.