Iocaste (moon)

Iocaste or , is a non-spherical moon of Jupiter. It was found by a team of astronomers from the University of Hawaii led by Scott S. Sheppard in 2000, and given the designation .IAUC 7555: Satellites of Jupiter 2001 January 5 (discovery)MPEC 2001-A28: S/2000 J 2, S/2000 J 3, S/2000 J 4, S/2000 J 5, S/2000 J 6 2001 January 5 (discovery and ephemeris)

Iocaste orbits Jupiter at an average distance of 20,723,000 km in 609.427 days, at an inclination of 147° to the ecliptic (146° to Jupiter's equator) with an orbital eccentricity of 0.2874.

It was named in October 2002 after Jocasta,IAUC 7998: Satellites of Jupiter 2002 October 22 (naming the moon) the mother/wife of Oedipus in Greek mythology.

Iocaste belongs to the Ananke group, believed to be the remnants of a break-up of a captured asteroid.Sheppard, S. S.; Jewitt, D. C.; An Abundant Population of Small Irregular Satellites Around Jupiter, Nature, Vol. 423 (May 2003), pp. 261-263Nesvorný, D.; Alvarellos, J. L. A.; Dones, L.; and Levison, H. F.; Orbital and Collisional Evolution of the Irregular Satellites , The Astronomical Journal, Vol. 126 (2003), pp. 398–429

The moon is about 5 kilometres in diameterSheppard, S. S.; Jewitt, D. C.; Porco, C. C.; 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, pp. 263-280 and appears grey, similar to C-type asteroids.Grav, T.; Holman, M. J.; Gladman, B. J.; and Aksnes, K.; Photometric survey of the irregular satellites, Icarus, Vol. 166 (2003), pp. 33-45

 References 

Ephemeris IAU-MPC NSES
Mean orbital parameters NASA JPL

 Other websites 
David Jewitt pages
Scott Sheppard pages

Category:Jupiter's moons