NASA’s Juno mission captures Jupiter’s moon in the Great Red Spot

For the first time, NASA (United States Space Agency), spotted the Amalthea, fifth moon of the planet Jupiter, transiting. During the Juno Mission’s 59th flyby, carried out on March 7, clear satellite images were captured of the Great Red Spot.

While the probe was about 265,000 kilometers above Jupiter’s cloud tops, at a latitude of about 5 degrees north of the equator, the satellite was observed passing, which has a radius of just 84 kilometers.

Without mass to turn into a sphere, the Amaltea has a potato shape. In 2000, NASA’s Galileo probe revealed some surface features, which include impact craters, hills and valleys. Part of Io’s orbit, the moon takes 0.498 Earth days to complete one lap around Jupiter.

Furthermore, Amalthea is the reddest object in the solar system and, according to observations, it emits more heat than it receives from the sun. This happens due to Jupiter’s powerful magnetic field, in which electrical currents are induced in the satellite’s core.

Another possible explanation is that the heat may come from tidal tensions caused by Jupiter’s gravity.