Jupiter's fifth moon spotted by NASA's Juno spacecraft; Here's why it's mysterious

NASA's Juno spacecraft earlier this year spotted the elusive fifth moon of Jupiter, known as Amalthea.

It was spottedas it transited the planet's Great Red Spot, offering researchers a rare view of this small but intriguing natural satellite.

Amalthea is Jupiter's fifth largest moon of the 95 known moons, with the four largest moonsbeing:Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto.

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However, Amalthea has quite humble dimensions, with its long axis stretching 250 kilometres and its narrowest point spanninga mere128 km.

Scientists believe the moon looks like a potatoand is likea loosely held-together rubble pile rather than solid rock.

Juno glanced at Amalthea on March 7 as it passed by Jupiter for the 59th time.

Amalthea looked like a tiny black dot against the backdrop of one of Jupiter's reddish, dark cloud bands; later, it was seen by Juno transiting the Great Red Spot.

The size of the moon is astounding: tiny Amalthea is seen 112,500 miles (181,000 km) above Jupiter's cloud tops, while the Great Red Spot, a massive anticyclonic storm, is currently 7,767 miles (12,500 km) broad.

Amalthea revolves around Jupitertheshortest of all the moons, completing one full rotation around it every 0.5 Earth days.

Amalthea is shrouded in mystery as scientists suspect the moon emits more heat than it receives from the Sun. It's still unknown where this extra energy is coming from.

However, several theories havebeen put forwardby researchers.

One theory is that Amalthea receives heat from Jupiter both directly and indirectly. Additionally, heat maybe producedby tidal pressures within Amalthea caused by Jupiter's tight grasp.

Amaltheais often forgottenin scientific discussions, with its significance being clouded by that of its four big giant siblings.

However, the exploration must continueto completely unravel the truth about this mysterious natural satellite.