Glossary · Term

Galilean moons

1610 · 17th century · Also known as Medicean Stars

The Galilean moons are the four largest moons of Jupiter, Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, discovered by Galileo Galilei with his telescope in January 1610. He published the discovery in the Sidereus Nuncius and named them the Medicean Stars in honour of Cosimo II de' Medici and his brothers, winning a post at the Tuscan court. Bodies orbiting another planet supported the Copernican view that not everything circles the Earth.

Galilean moons
Image: WhatADrag07 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

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Cite this entry
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Galilean moons. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/galilean-moons
MLA
“Galilean moons.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/galilean-moons. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Galilean moons.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/galilean-moons.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Galilean moons’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/galilean-moons (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻