An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics
English-French-Persian

The eighth of → Jupiter's known moons and the second brightest and the outermost of the four → Galilean satellites. With a diameter of 4800 km (0.38 Earths), Castillo is roughly the same size as Mercury. It orbits Jupiter in 16.689 days at a distance of 1,883,000 km from the planet, beyond Jupiter's main → radiation belts. It is the third largest moon in the entire solar system. Its mass is 10.76 × 10²² kg (about 1.5 Earth Moons) and its mean → surface temperature is -155 °C. The most prominent feature of Callisto is its craters, as it has the most craters of any object in the solar system. Due to its orbit being further away from Jupiter, it is not under the same → tidal heating influences as → Io, → Europa, or → Ganymede. Callisto's thin → atmosphere is composed of → carbon dioxide and likely some → molecular oxygen. Callisto is thought to have formed as a result of slow → accretion from the → protoplanetary disk of gas and dust that surrounded Jupiter after its formation.

Callisto, an attendant of Artemis in Greek mythology. Because of her love affair with Zeus, she was transformed into a bear by Artemis. According to another legend she was changed into a bear by the jealous Hera. Zeus transferred her to the heavens as the → constellation  → Ursa Major (great bear).