NASA's Juno Spacecraft Spots Jupiter's Mysterious Fifth Moon Amalthea

Amalthea was spotted as the Juno Spacecraft transited the planet's Great Red Spot, offering researchers a rare view of this small but intriguing natural satellite.

NASA's Juno Spacecraft recently spotted the mysterious fifth moon of Jupiter during its 59th close flyby of the giant planet earlier this year. Jupiter's most famous moons are its four Galilean satellites: Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. Its fifth moon, founded in 1892 by Edward Emerson Barnard, is known as Amalthea. According to NASA's blog, it was spotted as the Juno Spacecraft transited the planet's Great Red Spot, offering researchers a rare view of this small but intriguing natural satellite. 

"NASA's Juno mission captured these views of Jupiter during its 59th close flyby of the giant planet on March 7, 2024. They provide a good look at Jupiter's colorful belts and swirling storms, including the Great Red Spot. Close examination reveals something more: two glimpses of the tiny moon Amalthea," the US space agency wrote in its blog. 

In the pictures released by NASA, Amalthea looked like a tiny dot against the backdrop of one of Jupiter's reddish, dark cloud bands. The moon was also spotted by Juno transiting the Great Red Spot. "At the time that the first of these two images was taken, the Juno spacecraft was about 165,000 miles (265,000 kilometres) above Jupiter's cloud tops, at a latitude of about 5 degrees north of the equator," the space agency wrote.