Galileo scientists are in the process of calibrating and validating this data. The full digital image necessary for scientific analysis will be released within one year of receipt of this orbit's last data. These four images of Jupiter's moon, Amalthea , were taken by Galileo's solid state imaging system at various times between February and June 1997.
North is approximately up in all cases.
In such a tidally locked state, one side of Amalthea always points in the direction in which Amalthea moves as it orbits about Jupiter. The Sun illuminates the surface from the left in the top left image and from the right in the bottom left image. Such lighting geometries, similar to taking a picture from a high altitude at sunrise or sunset, are excellent for viewing the topography of the satellite's surface such as impact craters and hills. In the two images on the right, however, the Sun is almost directly behind the spacecraft. It emphasizes the presence of surface materials that are intrinsically brighter or darker than their surroundings.