The Carme group is a group of
retrograde irregular satellites of
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the List of Solar System objects by size, largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a Jupiter mass, mass more than 2.5 times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined a ...
that follow similar
orbit
In celestial mechanics, an orbit (also known as orbital revolution) is the curved trajectory of an object such as the trajectory of a planet around a star, or of a natural satellite around a planet, or of an artificial satellite around an ...
s to
Carme and are thought to have a common origin.
Their
semi-major axes (distances from Jupiter) range between 22.7 and 23.6
Gm, their
orbital inclination
Orbital inclination measures the tilt of an object's orbit around a celestial body. It is expressed as the angle between a reference plane and the orbital plane or axis of direction of the orbiting object.
For a satellite orbiting the Earth ...
s between 164.4° and 164.9°, and their
orbital eccentricities between 0.25 and 0.28 (with one exception).
The Carme group members are:
[
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 – 28]
Full text(pdf).
[
David Nesvorný, Cristian Beaugé, and Luke Dones''. Collisional Origin of Families of Irregular Satellites'', The Astronomical Journal, 127 (2004), pp. 1768–178]
Full text.
/ref>
The International Astronomical Union
The International Astronomical Union (IAU; , UAI) is an international non-governmental organization (INGO) with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreach, education, and developmen ...
(IAU) reserves names ending in -e for all retrograde moons.
Origin
The very low dispersion of the mean orbital elements among the core members (the group is separated by less than 900,000 km in semi major axis and only 0.5° in inclination) suggests that the Carme group may once have been a single body that was broken apart by an impact. The dispersion can be explained by a very small velocity impulse (5 < δV < 50 m/s).[David Nesvorný, Jose L. A. Alvarellos, Luke Dones, and Harold F. Levison''. Orbital and Collisional Evolution of the Irregular Satellites'', The Astronomical Journal,126 (2003), pages 398–429]
(pdf)
The parent body was probably about the size of Carme, 46 km in diameter; 99% of the group's mass is still located in Carme.infrared
Infrared (IR; sometimes called infrared light) is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than that of visible light but shorter than microwaves. The infrared spectral band begins with the waves that are just longer than those ...
spectra, similar to D-type asteroid
D-type asteroids have a very low albedo and a featureless reddish spectrum. It has been suggested that they have a composition of organic-rich silicates, carbon and anhydrous silicates, possibly with water ice in their interiors. D-type asteroids ...
s.[
] These data are consistent with a progenitor from the Hilda family or a Jupiter trojan.
Notes
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carme Group
Moons of Jupiter
Irregular satellites
Moons with a retrograde orbit