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Which four moons are called Jupiter’s Galilean satellites?
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Jupiter
Photograph of Jupiter taken by Voyager 1 on February 1, 1979, at a range of 32.7 million km (20.3 million miles). Prominent are the planet's pastel-shaded cloud bands and Great Red Spot (lower centre).
The four moons known as the Galilean satellites, named in honor of their discoverer Galileo, are listed below in order of increasing distance from Jupiter:
These moons were named by the astronomer Simon Marius after figures from Greek mythology associated with Jupiter. Their discovery provided critical evidence supporting the Copernican model of the solar system, as their orbits around Jupiter contradicted the Ptolemaic system, which posited that all celestial bodies must orbit Earth.1