Renderengs of the Jovian system

The first following animation represents the four Galilean satellites (Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto in order of distance from Jupiter) in orbit about Jupiter. The objects are to scale in terms of the diameter of Jupiter, its period of revolution, the orbital periods of the satellites, and the distances of the moons from Jupiter. However, the diameters of the moons have been increased by a factor of 30; but they do retain their correct diameters relative to each other.

One orbit of Callisto (16.689 days) is equivalent to the full length of the animation. The initial starting position of the satellites is arbitrary, and the view is from somewhat above the orbital plane of the satellites. The bodies do not cast shadows, and the moons have not been set to rotate.

Jupiter and the Galilean moons

high-quality .avi (661k) jupmo1.avi ZIP file (177k) jupmo1.zip

medium-quality .avi (546k) jupmo1a.avi ZIP file (104k) jupmo1a.zip

The second animation (below) repeats the cycle shown above, but from the orbital plane of the satellites, and with a different scaling of the sizes of the satellites' discs.

.avi file (543k) jupmopl.avi ZIP file (167k) jupmopl.zip