King of the planets.
Giant Jupiter, with its
Red Spot and banded, turbulent atmosphere,
looms awesomely behind two of its moons in
this view taken by the Voyager 1 spacecraft
from about 20 million kilometers (12 million
miles) away. The moons, each about the size
of Earth's Moon, are dwarfed by the planet,
which is large enough to contain more than a
thousand Earths. Even at this distance,
details ofJupiter's turbulent atmosphere are
visible. Io, the moon at the left, is in front of
Jupiter's Red Spot. This moon's orange color
may be due to sulfur compounds erupted
from its active volcanoes, discovered as
Voyager flew past. Europa (at right) is a
whitish moon. Its surface is probably a thick icy
crust overlying a rocky core.
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