Adrastea

Also known as Jupiter XV, S/1979 J 1

moon of Jupiter

AI overview

Adrastea is a small moon that orbits Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system. It is one of Jupiter's many moons and helps scientists understand the composition and history of the Jupiter system.

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Wikidata facts

Mass: 7.5
Image: Adrastea.jpg

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Commons category: Adrastea
time of discovery or invention: 1979-07-08
albedo: 0.10
orbital eccentricity: 0.0018
semi-major axis of an orbit: 129000

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Article

Adrastea (/ædrəˈstiːə/), also known as Jupiter XV, is the second by distance, and the smallest of the four inner moons of Jupiter. It was discovered in photographs taken by Voyager 2 in 1979, making it the first natural satellite to be discovered from images taken by an interplanetary spacecraft, rather than through a telescope. It was officially named after the mythological Adrasteia, foster mother of the Greek god Zeus—the equivalent of the Roman god Jupiter.

Adrastea is one of the few moons in the Solar System known to orbit its planet in less than the length of that planet's day. It orbits at the edge of Jupiter's main ring and is thought to be the main contributor of material to the rings of Jupiter. Despite observations made in the 1990s by the Galileo spacecraft, very little is known about the moon's physical characteristics other than its size and the fact that it is tidally locked to Jupiter.