Thyone (moon)

IFA Hawaii

Thyone ( Jupiter XXIX) is one of the smallest known outer moons of Jupiter.

Discovery

Thyone was discovered on 11 December 2001 by astronomers at the University of Hawaii. It was initially provisional designation S/2001 J 2

It was named after the moon Thyone, a lover of Zeus in Greek mythology.

Path data

Thyone orbits Jupiter at an average distance of 20.94 million km in 627 days and 7 hours. The track has an eccentricity of 0.229. With an inclination of 148.5 ° 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 Thyone the Ananke group, named after Jupiter's moon Ananke assigned.

Physical data

Thyone has an average diameter of about 4 km. Their density is estimated to be 2.6 g / cm ³. It is probably made ​​up predominantly of silicate rock. Thyone has a very dark surface with an albedo of 0.04, i.e., only 4% of the incident sunlight is reflected. Their apparent brightness is 22.3 m.