Adrastea (moon)
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For the asteroid, see 239 Adrastea.
For the moon of Jupiter known by this name between 1955 and 1975, see Ananke (moon).
Adrastea (pronounced /ˌædrəˈstiːə/ ad'-rə-stee'-ə, Greek Αδράστεια) or Jupiter XV, is the second of Jupiter's known moons (counting outward from the planet). It was discovered by David C. Jewitt and G. Edward Danielson in Voyager 2 probe photographs taken in 1979 and received the designation S/1979 J 1.[6][7] In 1983, it was officially named after the mythological Adrastea,[8] who was a daughter of Jupiter and Ananke. Adrastea was the first natural satellite to be discovered from images taken by an interplanetary spacecraft, rather than through telescopic photography.
Physical characteristicsAdrastea has an irregular shape and measures 20x16x14 km³ across.[5] The bulk composition and mass of Adrastea are not known, but assuming that its mean density is like that of Amalthea (~0.86 g/cm³)[9] its mass can be estimated at ~2×1015 kg. Amalthea's density implies that that moon is composed of water ice with a porosity of 10-15%, and Adrastea may be similar.[9] No surface details of Adrastea are known, due to the low resolution of available images.[5]
OrbitAdrastea is the smallest and second closest member of the inner Jovian satellite family. It orbits Jupiter at a radius of ~129,000 km (1.806 Jupiter radii) within the planet's Main Ring. The orbit has very small eccentricity ~0.0015 and inclination ~ 0.03° relative to the equator of Jupiter.[3] Due to tidal locking, Adrastea rotates synchronously with its orbital period, keeping one face always looking toward the planet. Its long axis is aligned towards Jupiter, this being the lowest energy configuration.[5] The orbit of Adrastea lies inside Jupiter's synchronous orbit radius (as does Metis’s), and as a result, tidal forces are slowly causing its orbit to decay so that it will one day impact Jupiter. If its density is similar to Amalthea's then its orbit would actually lie within the fluid Roche limit. In any case, however, since it is not breaking up, it must still lie outside its rigid Roche limit.[3] Relationship with Jupiter's ringsAdrastea is the largest contributor to material in Jupiter's rings. This material appears to consist primarily of material that is ejected from the surfaces of Jupiter's four small inner satellites by meteorite impacts. It is easy for the impact ejecta to be lost from the satellites into space because the satellites' surfaces lie fairly close to the edge of their Roche spheres due to their low density.[3] It appears that Adrastea is the most copious source of this ring material, as evidenced by the most dense ring (the Main Ring) being located at and within Adrastea's orbit.[10] Precisely, the orbit of Adrastea lies near the outer edge of Jupiter's Main Ring. The exact location of the visible ring material depends on the phase angle of the images: in forward-scattered light Adrastea is firmly outside the Main Ring,[11] but in back-scattered light (which reveals much bigger particles) there appears to also be a narrow ringlet outside Adrastea's orbit.[3] ExplorationAdrastea was discovered in Voyager 1 and 2 images, but appeared only as a dot.[7] The Galileo spacecraft was able to determine its shape, but the images remain poor.[5] See alsoReferences
External linksAdrastea Profile by NASA's Solar System Exploration
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