Thelxinoe (moon)

IFA Hawaii

Thelxinoe (Jupiter XLII) is one of the smaller moons of the planet Jupiter.

Discovery

Thelxinoe was discovered in 2004 on photographic recordings that had been made on 9 February 2003 by astronomers at the University of Hawaii. The moon has received the official name Thelxinoe of the International Astronomical Union ( IAU) on 30 March 2005.

It was named after the moon Thelxinoe, one of the titanic muses.

Path data

Thelxinoe orbits Jupiter at an average distance of 21,162,000 km in 628 days and 43 minutes. The track has an eccentricity of 0.2206. With an inclination of 151.4 ° to the local Laplace plane the web is retrograde, that is, the moon moves against the direction of rotation of Jupiter around the planet.

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

Physical data

Thelxinoe has a diameter of about 2 km. Their density is estimated to be 2.6 g / cm ³. It is probably made ​​up predominantly of silicate rock. It has a very dark surface with an albedo of 0.04, i.e., only 4% of the incident solar light is reflected. Their apparent brightness is 23.5 m.