Universe & space

Discovery of Hegemone

8 February 2003

Hegemone is a small irregular moon of Jupiter that was discovered in early 2003 by Scott Sheppard and his colleagues at the University of Hawaii, who were surveying the planet for faint outer satellites. It orbits at a great distance from Jupiter in a retrograde direction, and it is considered a member of the Pasiphae group of moons that probably formed from the breakup of a single captured body. It measures only a few kilometers across. The moon was named after Hegemone, one of the Graces, or Charites, in Greek mythology, who were daughters of Zeus.

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