Hegemone (moon) facts for kids

Hegemone (also called Jupiter XXXIX) is one of the many moons that orbit the giant planet Jupiter. It was discovered in 2003 by a team of astronomers from the University of Hawaii. This team was led by a scientist named Scott S. Sheppard. When it was first found, it was given the temporary name S/2003 J 8.

Discovery of Hegemone

Hegemone was found in 2003. It was part of a big search for new moons around Jupiter. The team at the University of Hawaii used powerful telescopes to spot these small, faint objects. Finding new moons helps scientists learn more about how our Solar System formed.

Hegemone's Features

Hegemone is a small moon, only about 3 kilometres wide. That's roughly the size of a small town! It travels around Jupiter at a very long distance, about 23,703,000 kilometres away. It takes Hegemone about 745.5 days to complete one full trip around Jupiter. This is much longer than Earth's moon, which takes about 27 days.

Hegemone's path around Jupiter is not a perfect circle. It's more of an oval shape, which scientists call an orbital eccentricity. Its path is also tilted quite a bit compared to Jupiter's equator.

How Hegemone Got Its Name

This moon was officially named in March 2005. It got its name from Hegemone, a figure in ancient Greek stories. Hegemone was one of the Graces, who were goddesses of charm, beauty, nature, human creativity, and fertility. She was also a daughter of Zeus, who is the Greek god equivalent to the Roman god Jupiter. Many of Jupiter's moons are named after characters connected to Zeus or Jupiter in mythology.

Hegemone's Family: The Pasiphaë Group

Hegemone is part of a group of moons called the Pasiphaë group. These moons are all quite small and not perfectly round. They also orbit Jupiter in a special way called "retrograde." This means they travel around Jupiter in the opposite direction to Jupiter's own spin.

The moons in the Pasiphaë group orbit Jupiter at similar distances, ranging from about 22,800,000 to 24,100,000 kilometres. They also have similar tilted orbits. Scientists believe that these moons might all be pieces of a larger moon that broke apart a long time ago after a collision.

See also

In Spanish: Hegémone (satélite) para niños