Thebe

Jupiter XIV - 1979J2

Thebe [THEE-bee] is the fourth known satellite of Jupiter. Thebe was a nymph and the daughter of the river god Asopus. Thebe rotates synchronously around Jupiter. Very little is known about this moon.

Thebe Statistics

Discovered by ............................... Stephen Synnott
Date of discovery ...................................... 1979

Mass (kg) .......................................... 7.77e+17
Mass (Earth = 1) ................................. 1.3002e-07
Radius (km) ........................................... 55x45
Radius (Earth = 1) ............................... 8.6234e-03
Mean density (gm/cm^3) .................................. 1.5

Mean distance from Jupiter (km) ..................... 221,895
Rotational period (days) ........................... 0.674536
Orbital period (days) .............................. 0.674536
Mean orbital velocity (km/sec) ........................ 23.93

Orbital eccentricity ................................. 0.0183
Orbital inclination .................................. 1.0659°

Escape velocity (km/sec) ............................. 0.0434

Visual geometric albedo ................................ 0.05
Magnitude (Vo) ......................................... 15.7

Views of Thebe

Discovery Image (GIF, 57K)
This is one of the discovery images (FDS 16383.54) of Thebe. It was taken by the Voyager 1 spacecraft 4 hours 26 minutes before the closest approach to Jupiter. This image is a wide angle picture taken at a range 4.3x10⁵ kilometers. The dark circular disk is the shadow of Thebe and not the actual planet. Once the shadow images were analyzed, Thebe was located on several other images. (Credit: Calvin J. Hamilton)

Thebe (GIF, 119K)
This image of Thebe (FDS 16220.56) was taken by the Voyager 1 spacecraft on February 27, 1979. Thebe is the small dark dot above the arrow. (Credit: Calvin J. Hamilton)

References

Synnott, S. P. "1979J2: Discovery of a Previously Unknown Jovian Satellite." Science, Vol 210, 14 November 1980.

Synnott, S. P. "Orbits of the Small Inner Satellites of Jupiter." Icarus 58, 1984.

Jupiter Amalthea Io

Author: Calvin J. Hamilton.