Discovery of Sponde

Sponde is a small irregular moon of Jupiter, only about two kilometres across, belonging to the Pasiphae group of retrograde moons. They orbit the planet at a great distance in the opposite direction to its rotation, and are thought to be fragments of a captured body that was broken apart. Sponde was discovered in a survey of Jupiter's outer moons by astronomers at the University of Hawaii. Its name comes from Greek mythology and is linked with the Greek word for a libation poured in rituals, and the final e marks a retrograde orbit.

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