Universe & space

Discovery of Euanthe

11 December 2001

Euanthe is a tiny irregular moon of Jupiter, only a few kilometres across, and belongs to the Ananke group, a cluster of moons following similar orbits. It travels around the planet at a great distance in the opposite direction to the planet's rotation, in what is called a retrograde orbit. Like the others in its group, it is thought to be a fragment of a larger body captured by Jupiter and then broken apart in a collision. It was found in a survey of the planet's outer moons made by astronomers at the University of Hawaii, and it is named after a figure from Greek mythology connected with Zeus.

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