Thelxinoe (moon)
Thelxinoe or Jupiter XLII is a moon of Jupiter. It was found by a team of astronomers from the University of Hawaii led by Scott S. Sheppard in 2004 from pictures taken in 2003, and originally got the designation S/2003 J 22.[1][2]
Thelxinoe is about 2 kilometres in diameter, and orbits Jupiter at an average distance of 20,454,000 km in 597.607 days, at an inclination of 151° to the ecliptic (153° to Jupiter's equator), with an orbital eccentricity of 0.2685.
It was named in March 2005 after Thelxinoe, one of the four original Muses according to some Greek writers, and a daughter of Zeus (Jupiter) by Mnemosyne.[3]
Thelxinoe 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 8276: S/2003 J 22 2004 January 25 (discovery)
- ↑ MPEC 2004-B41: S/2003 J 22 2004 January 24 (discovery and ephemeris)
- ↑ IAUC 8502: Satellites of Jupiter 2005 March 30 (naming the moon)
