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Temperatures of the Galilean Satellites Mentors Michael E. Brown and Samantha Trumbo (Caltech GPS)
Yiluo Li

The four Jovian satellites, Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto are often referred to as the Galilean satellites for their discoveries in 1610 by the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei. In the 20th Century, Galileo orbiter was launched and arrived at Jupiter in 1995 to study the satellites for their distinctive features in the Solar System and their possibilities of hosting liquid water at the current epoch. In this research, we analyzed the published and the unpublished Galileo Photopolarimeter-Radiometer (PPR) data on the brightness temperatures of the satellites. We extended the previous thermal model for Europa and adapted it for the other Galilean satellites. By comparing the models and the PPR data, we were able to characterize the potential thermal anomalies, the thermal inertia maps, as well as the relations between data and the albedo variations. This will improve our understanding on the thermal behaviors of these satellites, which may be helpful aiding with the instrument design for the future missions.


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