Amalthea – The Name Says it All!

In Greek mythology...

Amalthea is a nymph who suckles the infant Zeus (Latin: Jupiter), the most powerful of the Olympian gods, with goat's milk. Chronos, the father of Zeus, was foretold that one of his sons would kill him and become his successor. Chronos thereupon had all his sons killed. Only Zeus was brought to safety by the wet nurses, who entrusted him to Amalthea.

In space…

Amalthea is the name of a Jupiter moon. This moon has the property of giving off more energy than it receives from the sun.

Until 1892 we had thought that the reddest object in the solar system was Mars. But on September 9th of the same year, 282 years after the discovery of the four Galilean moons, Edward Emerson Barnard discovered a fifth moon of Jupiter, which is even redder and is today considered the reddest object in the solar system. It is, incidentally, the last moon to be discovered by direct observation – all subsequent lunar discoveries were made by means of photography. Its red surface testifies to its mystery. It is probably a “giant chunk of iron” captured by Jupiter’s gravitational attraction. Due to the additional induction energy generated as it cuts through Jupiter’s magnetic field, it gives off more energy than it receives from the sun’s radiation.