S/2003 J 2

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S/2003 J 2 is a retrograde irregular satellite of Jupiter. It was discovered by a team of astronomers from the University of Hawaii led by Scott S. Sheppard and David Jewitt in 2003.^[1] As of 2006, it is Jupiter's outermost known moon.

S/2003 J 2 is about 2 kilometres in diameter, and orbits Jupiter at an average distance of 29.54 Gm (million km) in 980 days, at an inclination of 154° to the ecliptic (152° to Jupiter's equator) and with an eccentricity of 0.2255.^{[2] 1}

It seems to belong to a group all of its own, with semi-major axis ~30 Gm and inclination ~160°.

The limits of Jupiter's gravitational influence are defined by its Hill sphere, whose radius is 52 gigametres. Retrograde moons with axes up to 67% of Hill radius are believed to be stable. Consequently, it is possible that even more distant moons of Jupiter may be discovered.

¹Current (2004 July 14, JD= 2453200.5) orbital elements as reported by^[3] are a= 0.2024818AU, e=0.1882469 i=153.52114.

[edit] References

1. ^ Scott S. Sheppard, David C. Jewitt An abundant population of small irregular satellites around Jupiter, Nature, 423 (May 2003), pp.261-263. Full text(pdf).
2. ^ Mean orbital elements from JPL (August 2006).
3. ^ Ephemeris service

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