What is the identity of the object that passes in front of Jupiter? Photographed by NASA's Juno spacecraft. sorae portal site to space

This is an image of Jupiter taken using the JunoCam visible light camera aboard NASA's Juno probe. Two side-by-side images taken during the 59th flyby of Jupiter “PJ59 (Perijove 59)” performed on March 7, 2024.

In fact, this image shows an object passing in front of Jupiter. It may be difficult to find in the posted photo due to the resolution, but can you guess where it is?

This object is actually Jupiter's moon Amalthea. Amalthea is a satellite located further inland than Io, known for its active volcanic activity, and has an orbital period of about 12 hours. Its average radius is about 84 kilometers, and it appears as a small dot in front of Jupiter, which has a diameter of about 11 times that of Earth.

JunoCam images are gradually being made available to the public, and many citizen scientists are creating a variety of images. The image was initially created by citizen scientist Gerald Eichstadt, and has been processed to make it clearer.

The first image was provided by NASA and the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) on May 13, 2024.

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• NASA – NASA's Juno mission discovers Jupiter's small moon Amalthea

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