Thebe (moon)
 Image of Thebe taken by the Galileo spacecraft on January 4, 2000. | |||||||
| Discovery | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Discovered by | Stephen P. Synnott / Voyager 1 | ||||||
| Discovered in | March 5, 1979 | ||||||
| Orbital characteristics | |||||||
| Mean radius | km | ||||||
| Eccentricity | 0.0018 | ||||||
| Revolution period | 16h 11.3m | ||||||
| Inclination | 1.070° | ||||||
| Is a satellite of | Jupiter | ||||||
| Physical characteristics | |||||||
| Mean diameter | 98.6 km | ||||||
| Surface area | km2 | ||||||
| Mass | 17 kilogram>kg | ||||||
| Mean density | 1.45 g/cm3 | ||||||
| Surface gravity | m/s2 | ||||||
| Surface Gravity (Earth = 1) | 0.00205 | ||||||
| Rotation period | 16h 11.3m | ||||||
| Axial tilt | 0.001° | ||||||
| Albedo | 0.047 | ||||||
| Surface temp |
| ||||||
| Atmospheric pressure | kPa | ||||||
Thebe (pronounced "THEE bee") is the fourth of Jupiter's known satellites by distance from the planet. It was discovered by Voyager 1 on March 5, 1979 and was first given the temporary name 1979 J 2. Later, it was found on images dating back to February 27, 1979. In 1983 it was officially named after the mythological nymph Thebe who was the daughter of the river god Asopus.
There appear to be at least three or four very large impact craters on the satellite (very large in the sense that each of these craters is roughly comparable in size to the radius of Thebe). Little else is known about it.
See also