Thebe [THEE-bee] is the fourth known satellite of Jupiter. Thebe was a nymph and the daughter of the river god Asopus. Thebe rotates synchronously around Jupiter. Very little is known about this moon.
| Thebe Statistics | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | Stephen Synnott |
| Date of discovery | 1979 |
| Mass (kg) | 7.77e+17 |
| Mass (Earth = 1) | 1.3002e-07 |
| Radius (km) | 55x45 |
| Radius (Earth = 1) | 8.6234e-03 |
| Mean density (gm/cm^3) | 1.5 |
| Mean distance from Jupiter (km) | 221,895 |
| Rotational period (days) | 0.674536 |
| Orbital period (days) | 0.674536 |
| Mean orbital velocity (km/sec) | 23.93 |
| Orbital eccentricity | 0.0183 |
| Orbital inclination (degrees) | 1.0659 |
| Escape velocity (km/sec) | 0.0434 |
| Visual geometric albedo | 0.05 |
| Magnitude (Vo) | 15.7 |
| Views of Thebe |
|---|
Discovery Image
This is one of the discovery images (FDS 16383.54) of Thebe.
It was taken by the Voyager 1 spacecraft 4 hours 26 minutes
before the closest approach to Jupiter. This image is a wide
angle picture taken at a range 4.3x105 kilometers. The dark circular
disk is the shadow of Thebe and not the actual planet. Once the
shadow images were analyzed, Thebe was located on several other
images.
(Credit: Calvin J. Hamilton)
Thebe
This image of Thebe (FDS 16220.56) was taken by the Voyager 1 spacecraft
on February 27, 1979. Thebe is the small dark dot above the arrow.
(Credit: Calvin J. Hamilton)
| References |
|---|
Synnott, S. P. "Orbits of the Small Inner Satellites of Jupiter." Icarus 58, 1984.
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