12.2 The galilean moons of jupiter

Learning objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

• Describe the major features we can observe about Callisto and what we can deduce from them
• Explain the evidence for tectonic and volcanic activity on Ganymede
• Explain what may be responsible for the unusual features on the icy surface of Europa
• Describe the major distinguishing characteristic of Io
• Explain how tidal forces generate the geological activity we see on Europa and Io

From 1996 to 1999, the Galileo spacecraft careered through the jovian system on a complex but carefully planned trajectory that provided repeated close encounters with the large Galilean moons . (Beginning in 2004, we received an even greater bonanza of information about Titan, obtained from the Cassini spacecraft and its Huygens probe, which landed on its surface. We include Titan, Saturn’s one big moon, here for comparison.) [link] summarizes some basic facts about these large moons (plus our own Moon for comparison).

Callisto: an ancient, primitive world

We begin our discussion of the Galilean moons with the outermost one, Callisto , not because it is remarkable but because it is not. This makes it a convenient object with which other, more active, worlds can be compared. Its distance from Jupiter is about 2 million kilometers, and it orbits the planet in 17 days. Like our own Moon, Callisto rotates in the same period as it revolves, so it always keeps the same face toward Jupiter. Callisto’s day thus equals its month: 17 days. Its noontime surface temperature is only 130 K (about 140 °C below freezing), so that water ice is stable (it never evaporates) on its surface year round.

Callisto has a diameter of 4820 kilometers, almost the same as the planet Mercury ( [link] ). Yet its mass is only one-third as great, which means its density (the mass divided by the volume) must be only one-third as great as well. This tells us that Callisto has far less of the rocky and metallic materials found in the inner planets and must instead be an icy body through much of its interior. Callisto can show us how the geology of an icy object compares with those made primarily of rock.

Unlike the worlds we have studied so far, Callisto has not fully differentiated (separated into layers of different density materials). We can tell that it lacks a dense core from the details of its gravitational pull on the Galileo spacecraft. This surprised scientists, who expected that all the big icy moons would be differentiated. It should be easier for an icy body to differentiate than for a rocky one because the melting temperature of ice is so low. Only a little heating will soften the ice and get the process started, allowing the rock and metal to sink to the center while the slushy ice floats to the surface. Yet Callisto seems to have frozen solid before the process of differentiation was complete.