Carme group

The Carme group is a group of retrograde non-spherical moons of Jupiter that follow similar orbits to Carme and are thought to have a common origin.

Their semi-major axes (distances from Jupiter) range between 22,900,000 and 24,100,000 km, their inclinations between 164.9° and 165.5°, and their orbital eccentricities between 0.23 and 0.27 (with one exception).

The core members include (from biggest to smallest):Scott S. Sheppard, David C. Jewitt, Carolyn Porco  
Jupiter's outer satellites and Trojans, In: Jupiter. The planet, satellites and magnetosphere. Edited by Fran Bagenal, Timothy E. Dowling, William B. McKinnon. Cambridge planetary science, Vol. 1, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, , 2004, p. 263 - 280
Full text(pdf).David Nesvorný, Cristian Beaugé, and Luke Dones
Collisional Origin of Families of Irregular Satellites, The Astronomical Journal, 127 (2004), pp. 1768–1783 Full text.
 Carme (the biggest, which gives its name to the group)
 Taygete
 EukeladeListed by Nesvorny 2004 as a possible member, not listed by Sheppard 2004; the orbital elements confirmed by Jacobson 2004
 S/2003 J 5
 Chaldene
 Isonoe
 Kalyke (redder than the others)
 Erinome
 Aitne
 Kale
 Pasithee
 S/2003 J 9
 S/2003 J 10

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) reserves names in -e for all retrograde moons, including this group's members.

Origin
The Carme group may once have been a single body that was broken apart by an impact. Further support to the single body origin comes from the known colours: all the moons appear light red,Grav, Tommy; Holman, Matthew J.; Gladman, Brett J.; Aksnes, Kaare Photometric survey of the irregular satellites, Icarus, 166,(2003), pp. 33-45. Preprint
and infrared spectra, similar to D-type asteroids.Tommy Grav and Matthew J. Holman
Near-Infrared Photometry of the Irregular Satellites of Jupiter and Saturn,The Astrophysical Journal, 605, (2004), pp. L141–L144  Preprint


References

Category:Jupiter's moons