The Many Moons of Jupiter

A data visualization mapping all of Jupiter’s 79 known moons, celebrating over 400 years of Jovian discovery.

In 1610, Galileo Galilei gazed up through his telescope in the direction of Jupiter. In that moment he likely became the first person to see a moon other than our own, as light that had left the vicinity of the gas giant around half an hour earlier crashed into his pupils and revealed four dotted silhouettes. These Galilean moons, one of which is even larger than the planet Mercury, became the opening entries into a collection that is still increasing today. In fact in 2018, 407 years after the Italian polymath made his discovery, scientists confirmed the existence of 12 more moons locked in slow rotation with the largest planet in our solar system. 

This data visualization displays every currently known moon of Jupiter, each featuring the year of discovery, discoverer and a representation of scale. While all information is correct as of 2018, scientists are finding new wonders in our solar system every day; so who knows how many new Jovian moons are out there right now, held in endless revolutions, just waiting for eyes to meet them for the first time?

See the high res version here.