Galactic Escapade Episode 1

Escapade Post 1 - Callisto

Hello everyone! This is the first ever blog I made and to start it off, I want to share to you something that has veen a very important part in my life-Callisto

Callisto is a moon of the Solar System, specifically Jupiter. It is one of the Galilean Moons: Ganymede, Callisto, Io, and Europa. Callisto is the second largest moon in Jupiter and is the third largest moon in the whole Solar System. It is about the size of Mercury, like 99% the soze of the planet and, in my opinion is the most beautiful moon EVER.

Here are some facts about Callisto:



Callisto is half-rocky and half-icy. It does not appear to be tidally heated, which means that Callisto is not subject to the tidal friction, orbital, and rotational energy that causes the surfaces of the other moons, such as Europa, to be heated to the point where surface ice melts. This is because Callisto travels too far away from Jupiter to be affected by the planet's magnetosphere.

Take for example Io. It is tidally heated and is the closest Galilean Moon to Jupiter. Its surface is lined with hundreds of volcanoes and is the most volcanically active world in the whole solar system.

The moon is also the farthest away from Jupiter of all Galilean Moons, hence why it is the only one that is not tidally heated.



Being almost the same size, doesn't mean the same mass. Callisto has a diameter of 4,820.60 km only 58.4 km smaller than Mercury. However, its mass doesn't even reach half the mass of Mercury. The Galilean Moon wieghs only 107,593,737,963,819 billion kilograms, while Mercury’s mass is 330,104,000,000,000 billion kilograms.

The moon is named after Callisto, a nymph, and one of the many paramours of Zeus, the King of the Gods of Greek mythology. Zeus’ wife, Hera, was less than pleased when the affair was discovered and in revenge, she changed Callisto into a bear and placed her in the sky as the constellation Ursa Major.



The moon is one of the most beautiful things, or astronomical features found in the galaxy. It's the most heavily cratered world in the solar system, holding as much as ____ craters. Callisto doesn't seem to show tectonic, geologic, or volcanic activity, which would mean that the craters cannot weather or waer away as nothing would obstruct it, aside from the occasional crash of meteors.

Callisto is also brighter than our moon, even with a significant distance away from the Earth. When viewed through a telescope, it would be several times brighter than our very own moon. This is because it has a layer of ice on its surface reflects 20% of light. Calisto is also very old, as old as Jupiter itself at about 4.5 billion years old.



Lastly, the most surprising fact that I learned about Callisto is that it was supposed to be a planet, but it isn't. The Galilean Moon can be considered as a planet as it is large enough or larger than the dwarf planet Pluto. However, one of the primary factors that determine whether a solar system body is a planet is if orbits the sun. Callisto orbits the planet Jupiter, which eliminates its chance to be a planet

Callisto is a layered world, with a rigid outer surface and an interior ocean likely made of water mixed with salts or ammonia. There is also a thin atmosphere at Callisto made mostly of carbon dioxide which was detected by the Galileo spacecraft. And the most prominent feature on Callisto is a multi-ringed impact basin called Valhalla.


Callisto is one of the Galilean Moon, others are Ganymede, Io, and Europa. It is the second largest Galilean Moon, and the third largest moon in the whole solar system, with Ganymede as the first, Tita, Saturn's largest moon, as the second, and then Callisto. The planet the Galilean Moons orbit is Jupiter which is the largest planet in the solar system.

So that's it guys! I am very happy to have shared to you one of my favorite things in the universe and one of the reasons i fell in love with astronomy. I hope you follow and comment down below what you think of the moon and maybe suggestions on what to tell you next.

If you guys like astronomy, or maybe you're curious, I recommend watching Crash Course Astronomy in youtube. If you like the other branches of science, Crash Course also has them as well as other infromations. I am just recommending though since I like the channel so much

https://www.youtube.com/user/crashcourse

References


http://www.astronomytrek.com/10-interesting-facts-about-callisto/
https://space-facts.com/moons/callisto/
https://www.space.com/16448-callisto-facts-about-jupiters-dead-moon.html