Adrastea

Jupiter XV - 1979J1

Adrastea [a-DRAS-tee-uh] is the second innermost known satellite of Jupiter. Adrastea was the daughter of Jupiter and Ananke and the distributor of rewards and punishments. Adrastea and Metis lie within Jupiter's main ring and may be the source of material for the ring. Very little is known about Adrastea.

Adrastea Statistics

Discovered by ...................... D. Jewitt & E. Danielson
Date of discovery ...................................... 1979

Mass (kg) .......................................... 1.91e+16
Mass (Earth = 1) ................................. 3.1961e-09
Radius (km) ..................................... 12.5x10x7.5
Radius (Earth = 1) ............................... 1.9599e-03
Mean density (gm/cm^3) .................................. 4.5

Mean distance from Jupiter (km) ..................... 128,971
Rotational period (days) .................................. ?
Orbital period (days) .............................. 0.298260
Mean orbital velocity (km/sec) ........................ 31.45

Orbital eccentricity ................................. 0.0000
Orbital inclination .................................. 0.0000°

Escape velocity (km/sec) ............................. 0.0143

Visual geometric albedo ................................ 0.05
Magnitude (Vo) ......................................... 19.1

Views of Adrastea

Discovery Image (GIF, 43K)
This is the discovery image (FDS 20630.53) of Adrastea. It was taken by the Voyager spacecraft 23 hours before the closest approach to Jupiter. This image is a wide angle picture taken with a 15 second exposure. The range is 1.4 x 10⁶ km. The faint line is the Jovian ring. Adrastea is a small dot above the arrow. The brighter dot to the left is a star. (Credit: Calvin J. Hamilton)

Subsequent Observation (GIF, 37K)
This image (FDS 20630.48) of Adrastea was taken 5 minutes earlier than the previous image. The exposure time was 96 seconds. The faint band is the Jovian ring and is smeared because of parallax and spacecraft motion. Adrastea is the bright line in the lower right. A star can be seen as a line in the upper left. Notice the difference in length and direction of the two lines. This image was used to verify that the spot in the previous image was indeed a satellite of Jupiter. (Credit: Calvin J. Hamilton)

References

Jewitt, David C. et al. "Discovery of a New Jupiter Satellite." Science, Vol 206, 23 November 1979.

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

Jupiter Metis Amalthea

Author: Calvin J. Hamilton.