Inner satellites of Jupiter
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The inner satellites of Jupiter are four small moons that orbit close to Jupiter. These satellites are closely interconnected with Jupiter's rings and serve as both sources and sinks of the ring's material. Their semi-major axes range between 128,000 and 222,000 km.[1]
The members of the group are (in order of increasing distance from Jupiter):
Metis and Adrastea each orbit Jupiter in less than one Jovian day. Phobos, a moon of Mars, is the only other natural satellite known to orbit its planet in less than the length of that planet's day.
[edit] See also
[edit] Gallery of images
 Image of Metis taken by the Galileo spacecraft |
 Images of Amalthea obtained from the Galileo spacecraft |
 Image of Thebe obtained by the Galileo spacecraft |
[edit] References
- ^ Burns, J.A.; D.P. Simonelli & M.R. Showalter et al. (2004), "Jupiter’s Ring-Moon System", in Bagenal, F.; Dowling, T. E.; McKinnon, W. B., Jupiter: The planet, Satellites and Magnetosphere, Cambridge University Press, <http://www.astro.umd.edu/~hamilton/research/preprints/BurSimSho03.pdf>
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