The Jovian Satellite System

Jupiter is practically its own solar system, only lacking its own heat source, like the Sun. And yet, the tidal forces it exerts does result in some heat related phenomena in some of its larger moons. In addition to the four large Galilean moons, Jupiter also has a family of smaller regular moons and irregular moons. In fact, as of November 27, 2006 there were 63 known moons of Jupiter (Scott Sheppard, personal communication). Jupiter has a ring system, undetected until the spacecraft missions of the 1970s. There is also a family of asteroids known as Trojans, and a Jupiter family of comets. As we will see, Jupiter has substantial gravitational infl uence in our solar system.