S/2003 J 10 facts for kids

S/2003 J 10 is a small, rocky moon that orbits the giant planet Jupiter. It's not perfectly round like Earth's Moon; instead, it has an irregular, non-spherical shape. This tiny moon was first discovered in 2003 by a group of scientists from the University of Hawaii. The team was led by an astronomer named Scott S. Sheppard.

Discovering S/2003 J 10

Scientists found S/2003 J 10 in 2003 while looking for new objects around Jupiter. The team from the University of Hawaii, led by Scott S. Sheppard, used powerful telescopes to spot this small moon. Finding such tiny objects so far away is a big challenge!

Orbit and Size

S/2003 J 10 is quite small, only about 2 kilometres (about 1.2 miles) wide. To give you an idea, that's roughly the length of two football fields! It travels around Jupiter very far away, at an average distance of about 22,731,000 kilometres (about 14.1 million miles).

It takes S/2003 J 10 a long time to complete one trip around Jupiter. One orbit lasts about 700 days, which is almost two Earth years! Its path around Jupiter is also quite tilted, or has a high inclination, of about 164 degrees. This means it orbits in a direction opposite to Jupiter's rotation. Its orbit is also not a perfect circle; it's a bit stretched out, which scientists call orbital eccentricity.

The Carme Group

S/2003 J 10 is part of a family of moons known as the Carme group. This group includes several small, non-spherical moons that all orbit Jupiter in a similar way. They all travel backward (which is called retrograde motion) compared to Jupiter's spin.

The moons in the Carme group orbit Jupiter at distances between 23,000,000 and 24,000,000 kilometres (about 14.3 to 14.9 million miles). Their orbits are also tilted at a similar angle, around 165 degrees. Scientists believe that these moons might all be pieces of a larger moon that broke apart a long time ago after a collision.