Mneme (moon)
Mneme or Jupiter XL, is a non-spherical moon of Jupiter. It was found by a team of astronomers from the University of Hawaii led by Scott S. Sheppard, et al. in 2003, and was designated S/2003 J 21.[1][2]
Mneme is about 2 kilometres in diameter, and orbits Jupiter at an average distance of 21,427,000 km in 640.769 days, at an inclination of 149° to the ecliptic (148° to Jupiter's equator) with an orbital eccentricity of 0.2214.
It was named in March 2005 after Mneme, one of the three original Muses.[3] She is sometimes confused with Mnemosyne, mother of the Muses (the three or the nine, depending on the author) by Zeus (Jupiter).
Mneme belongs to the Ananke group, retrograde non-spherical moons which orbit Jupiter between 19,300,000 and 22,700,000 km, at inclinations of about 150°.
References
- ↑ IAUC 8138: S/2003 J 21 2003 May 30 (discovery)
- ↑ MPEC 2003-K45: S/2003 J 21 2003 May 29 (discovery and ephemeris)
- ↑ IAUC 8502: Satellites of Jupiter 2005 March 30 (naming the moon)
