Discovery of Kalyke

Kalyke is a small irregular moon of Jupiter, discovered in November 2000 by a team of astronomers from the University of Hawaii led by Scott Sheppard and David Jewitt. It orbits the planet far from it, in a retrograde direction, meaning that it moves opposite to Jupiter's rotation. Like many such outer moons, it is thought to be a captured asteroid or a fragment of one, and it belongs to a group of retrograde moons with similar orbits. It is named after a figure from Greek mythology, following the convention for Jupiter's outer moons of using names of lovers and descendants of Zeus. Its diameter is only a few kilometers, so it can be seen only with large telescopes.

Open on the timeline