Pasiphae (moon)

P. J. Melotte

Pasiphae Pasiphae or ( Jupiter VIII) is one of the outer moons of Jupiter.

Discovery

Pasiphae was discovered on January 27, 1908 by Philibert Jacques Melotte astronomer. It was first found on photographic plates which had been exposed on the night of February 28, 1908 at the Royal Greenwich Observatory ( England). The investigation of other plates showed that the object was actually started on January 27. Since initially it was not clear whether it was an asteroid or a moon, it was given the provisional designation 1908 CJ asteroids. On April 10, was finally able to the discovery of an eighth moon in Jupiter be confirmed.

The moon was named after Pasiphae, wife of Minos and mother of the Minotaur from Greek mythology. It was given its official name in 1975, before she was called Jupiter Moon VIII. Pasiphae is the namesake of a group of Jupiter 's moons, which move on similar orbits. The Pasiphae group consists of thirteen members, with Pasiphae is the largest.

Path data

Pasiphae orbits Jupiter at an average distance of 23,624,000 km in 743 days, 15 hours and 7 minutes. The web has a strong eccentricity of 0.4090. With an inclination of 151.431 ° the web is retrograde, that is, the moon moves against the direction of rotation of Jupiter around the planet.

Physical data

Pasiphae has an average diameter of about 60 km. Their density is estimated to be 2.6 g / cm ³. It is probably made ​​up predominantly of silicate rock. Pasiphae has a very dark surface with an albedo of 0.04. Their apparent brightness is 17.0 m. The average temperature on its surface is -102 ° C.

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