Ananke (moon)

S. B. Nicholson

Ananke ( Jupiter XII) is one of the outer moons of Jupiter.

Discovery

Ananke was discovered on 28 September 1951 by the astronomer Seth Barnes Nicholson at Mount Wilson Observatory in California.

It was named after the moon Ananke, a lover of Zeus in Greek mythology. It received its official name in 1975, before he was referred to simply as Jupiter's moon XII, as he was the twelfth moon discovered in Jupiter.

Path data

Ananke orbits Jupiter at an average distance of 21.28 million km in 629 days, 18 hours and 29 minutes. The track has an eccentricity of 0.2435. With an inclination of 148.9 ° to the local Laplace plane [A 1], the web is retrograde, that is, the moon moves opposite to the rotation of Jupiter around the planet.

Ananke is the namesake of a group of moons, which move on similar orbits around Jupiter. The Ananke group comprises eight to sixteen moons, where Ananke is the largest member.

Physical data

Ananke has an average diameter of about 28 km. Their density is estimated to be 2.6 g / cm ³. It is probably made ​​up predominantly of silicate rock. Ananke has a very dark surface with an albedo of 0.04. Their apparent brightness is 18.8 m.

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