Lysithea (moon)

S. B. Nicholson

Lysithea ( Jupiter X) is one of the smaller outer moons of Jupiter.

Discovery

Lysithea was discovered on July 6, 1938 by the astronomer Seth Barnes Nicholson at Mount Wilson Observatory. It was named after the moon Lysithea, a lover of Zeus in Greek mythology. Your official name was Lysithea in 1975, before she was called Jupiter X.

Path data

Lysithea orbits Jupiter at an average distance of 11,717,000 km in 250 days and 4 hours and 48 minutes. The track has an eccentricity of about 0.11 and about 28.3 ° relative to the local Laplace plane which coincides approximately with the plane of the path of Jupiter, inclined.

Because of their web properties it is the Himalia group, named after Jupiter's moon Himalia assigned.

Physical data

Lysithea has an average diameter of 36 km. Their density is 2.6 g / cm ³ relatively high, indicating that it is predominantly composed of silicate rock. It has a very dark surface with an albedo of 0.04. Their apparent brightness is 18.3 m.