Megaclite (moon) facts for kids

Megaclite (also known as Jupiter XIX) is one of the many moons that orbit the giant planet Jupiter. It was discovered in the year 2000 by a team of astronomers from the University of Hawaii. The team was led by a scientist named Scott S. Sheppard. When it was first found, it was given the temporary name S/2000 J 8.

Size and Orbit

Megaclite is a small moon, only about 5.4 kilometers (about 3.3 miles) wide. To give you an idea, that's roughly the size of a small town! It travels around Jupiter at a very long distance, averaging about 24,687,000 kilometers (about 15.3 million miles).

It takes Megaclite a long time to complete one trip around Jupiter – about 792 days, which is more than two Earth years! Its path around Jupiter is not a perfect circle; it's more of an oval shape. Also, its orbit is tilted quite a bit compared to Jupiter's equator.

How Megaclite Got Its Name

This moon was officially named in October 2002. It was named after Megaclite, a figure from ancient Greek stories. In these myths, Megaclite was said to be the mother of Thebe and Locrus, and her children's father was Zeus. In Roman mythology, Zeus is known as Jupiter, which is why the moon orbits the planet Jupiter.

Megaclite's Family: The Pasiphaë Group

Megaclite is part of a group of moons called the Pasiphaë group. These moons are all quite small and have irregular shapes, meaning they are not perfectly round like Earth's Moon. They all orbit Jupiter in a "retrograde" direction. 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 22.8 million to 24.1 million kilometers. They also have similar tilted orbits, ranging from about 144.5 to 158.3 degrees. Scientists believe that these moons might all be pieces of a larger moon that broke apart a long time ago.