image credit: NASA

Jupiter’s Moons

Here are Jupiter and its Galilean moons, which Galileo saw through his crude telescope--and you can see them easily through a small telescope, too. For a simulation of observations of the Galilean moons, see Jupiter's Moons. To find out about the whole Jupiter system, visit the NASA site Jupiter: Moons.

The inward force of Jupiter's gravity keeps each of Jupiter's moons in its orbit.

(This feature was updated on July 17, 2013.)

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Nebraska Astronomy Applet Project: Planetary Orbit Simulator

If you'd like an introduction to planetary orbits and Kepler's laws, visit the Nebraska Astronomy Applet Project: Planetary Orbit Simulator.

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These images/animations were created by Prof. Andrea Ghez and her research team at UCLA and are from data sets obtained with the W. M. Keck Telescopes; image source; larger image

UCLA Galactic Center Group

The Andrea Ghez group at UCLA produced this image of our galaxy's center, showing stars tightly orbiting an object determined to be a black hole with a mass of 3.7 million suns. For more on this image and and how it was made, see UCLA Galactic Center Group and Stellar Orbits in the Central Arcsec. Don't miss this animation of the motion of these stars.

Planetary Orbits

Visit Planetary Orbits for simulations of planetary orbits. For more about Kepler's Laws, which describe the orbits of planets, see this Hyperphysics page and Johannes Kepler: the Laws of Planetary Motion.