Moons of Jupiter 3D

A freeware 3D tool that simulates the motion of Jupiter's four Galilean moons

Firstly, this simulator allows you to see the Jupiter's Great Red Spot and the smaller Jovian storms in high resolution. Secondly, the surface of the four Galilean moons can also be seen in great detail. Zoom in and out, basic information about each moon you are exploring, real speed ratios for the orbital rotations of the four moons - these are some of the most important features of this free application. The four largest moons of Jupiter (Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto) were first seen by Galileo Galilei in December 1609 through his telescope. An interesting fact about this mini solar system, the first three moons exhibit a 1:2:4 orbital resonance - their orbital periods being related by this ratio of small integers.

The original images we have used in this utility came from three important sources: Milky Way - ESO/S. Brunier, Jupiter - www.solarsystemscope.com, the Moons: stevealbers.net and Bjorn Jonsson; however, they were tuned a little bit in order to make them more clear.

Space key acts like a toggle button, it changes the application's main menu on and off. A right mouse click shows a popup menu with the other functions of this simulator. For instance, the values of mass, volume and surface gravity can be displayed if you select 'Show info'. 'Auto-rotate' starts and stops the orbital and axial rotations of these celestial bodies; when the animation 'freezes', you may perform a  thorough exploration or you can take a nice screenshot.

Requirements

 - Windows 7, 8 or 10, 32 or 64 bit versions

 - Monitors having at least 1024 x 768 px resolution

 - The graphic mode set to the native monitor resolution

 - A good (fast) graphic card