Cyllene is one of Jupiter's many moons that orbits far from the planet in a distant and irregular path. It is of scientific interest because studying its orbit and characteristics helps astronomers understand Jupiter's system of moons and how celestial bodies form and move in space.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Key facts
- Discovered by
- Scott S. Sheppard et al.
- Designation
- Jupiter XLVIII
- Pronunciation
- / s ə ˈ l iː n iː /
- Named after
- Κυλλήνη Kyllēnē
- Alternative names
- S/2003 J 13
- Adjectives
- Cyllenean / s ɪ l ə ˈ n iː ə n /
- Observation arc
- 16 years, 2018-04-18 (last obs)
- Periapsis
- 13.9 million km
- Apoapsis
- 33.83 million km
- Semi major axis
- 23.9 million km
- Orbital period sidereal
- −754.4 days
- Inclination
- 144.5°
- Satellite of
- Jupiter
- Group
- Pasiphae group
- Mean diameter
- 2 km
- Spectral type
- B–V = 0.73 ± 0.07, V–R = 0.46 ± 0.07
- Absolute magnitude h
- 16.34 (28 obs)
via Wikipedia infobox
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Encyclopedic overview
Cyllene /səˈliːniː/, also known as Jupiter XLVIII, is an irregular satellite of Jupiter. It was discovered by a team of astronomers from the University of Hawaiʻi led by Scott S. Sheppard in 2003, receiving the temporary designation S/2003 J 13. It gets as far as 33.8 million kilometres (21,000,000 mi) from Jupiter.
Cyllene is about 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) in diameter, and orbits Jupiter at an average distance of 23.9 million kilometres (14,900,000 mi) in 754 days (2.06 yr), at an inclination of 145° to the ecliptic, in a retrograde direction and with an eccentricity of 0.416. The orbital elements are continuously changing due to solar and planetary perturbations. In October 2014, the moon reached 0.253 AU (37.8 million km; 23.5 million mi) from Jupiter, and in October 2015 approached within 0.0616 AU (9.22 million km; 5.73 million mi) of Jupiter.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Cyllene” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.