Adrastea (moon)

Adrastea or , is the second closest moon to Jupiter. It was found by David C. Jewitt and G. Edward Danielson in Voyager 2 probe photographs taken in 1979 and received the designation .IAUC 3454: Editorial Notice 1980 February 25 (discovery) In 1983, it was named after the mythological Adrastea,IAUC 3872: Satellites of Jupiter and Saturn 1983 September 30 (naming the moon) who was a daughter of Jupiter and Ananke.

Adrastea was the first moon to be found from images taken by an interplanetary spacecraft, rather than through telescopic photography.

 Physical characteristics 
Adrastea is non-spherical and measures 20x16x14 km³ across. What Adrastea is made of and the mass of Adrastea are not known, but assuming that its mean density is like that of Amalthea (~0.86 g/cm³) its mass can be estimated at ~2×1015 kg. Amalthea's density implies that moon is composed of water ice with a porosity of 10-15%, and Adrastea may be similar.

No surface details of Adrastea are known, due to the low resolution of available images.

 Orbit 
Adrastea is the smallest and second closest member of the closer moons to Jupiter. It orbits Jupiter at ~129,000 km (1.806 Jupiter radii) within the planet's Main Ring. The orbital eccentricity of ~0.0015 and inclination of ~ 0.03° relative to the equator of Jupiter are very small.

 Exploration 
Adrastea was found in Voyager 1 and 2 images, but appeared only as a dot. The Galileo spacecraft was able to see its shape, but the images remain poor.

 References 

 Other websites 
 Adrastea Profile  by NASA's Solar System Exploration

Category:Jupiter's moons