Universe & space

Discovery of Adrastea

8 July 1979

Adrastea is a tiny, irregular moon of Jupiter, one of the four inner moons, and orbits at the outer edge of the planet's main ring. It was discovered by David Jewitt and G. Edward Danielson in images taken by the Voyager 2 spacecraft, and it was the first moon discovered using spacecraft images alone. The moon is only a few tens of kilometres across and orbits Jupiter in about seven hours, within the distance at which a moon would keep pace with the planet's rotation. Adrastea, together with Metis, is thought to supply the dust that makes up the main ring.

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