Himalia (moon)

Himalia (), also known as Jupiter VI, is the largest irregular satellite of Jupiter. With a diameter of at least , it is the sixth largest Jovian satellite, after the four Galilean moons and Amalthea. It was discovered by Charles Dillon Perrine at the Lick Observatory on 3 December 1904 and is named after the nymph Himalia, who bore three sons of Zeus (the Greek equivalent of Jupiter). It is one of the largest planetary moons in the Solar System not imaged in detail, and the third largest not imaged in detail within the orbit of Neptune.

Discovery

Himalia was discovered by Charles Dillon Perrine at the Lick Observatory on 3 December 1904 in photographs taken with the 36-inch Crossley reflecting telescope which he had recently rebuilt.
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Himalia is Jupiter's most easily observed small satellite; though Amalthea is brighter, its proximity to the planet's brilliant disk makes it a far more difficult object to view.

Name

Himalia is named after the nymph Himalia, who bore three sons of Zeus (the Greek equivalent of Jupiter). The moon did not receive its present name until 1975; before then, it was simply known as or Jupiter Satellite VI, although calls for a full name appeared shortly after its and Elara's discovery; A.C.D. Crommelin wrote in 1905:

The moon was sometimes called Hestia, after the Greek goddess, from 1955 to 1975.

Orbits

At a distance of about from Jupiter, Himalia takes about 250 Earth days to complete one orbit around Jupiter. It is the largest member of the Himalia group, which are a group of small moons orbiting Jupiter at a distance from to , with inclined orbits at an angle of 27.5 degrees to Jupiter's equator. Their orbits are continuously changing due to solar and planetary perturbations.

Physical characteristics

Himalia's rotational period is . Himalia appears neutral in color (grey), like the other members of its group, with colour indices B−V=0.62, V−R=0.4, similar to a C-type asteroid. Measurements by ''Cassini'' confirm a featureless spectrum, with a slight absorption at , which could indicate the presence of water.
Although Himalia is the sixth-largest moon of Jupiter, it is the fifth-most massive. Amalthea is only a few km bigger, but less massive.
Resolved images of Himalia by ''Cassini'' have led to a size estimate of , while ground-based estimates suggest that Himalia is large, with a diameter around . In May 2018, Himalia occulted a star, allowing for precise measurements of its size. The occultation was observed from the US state of Georgia. From the occultation, Himalia was given a size estimate of , in agreement with earlier ground-based estimates.

Mass

In 2005, Emelyanov estimated Himalia to have a mass of ( GM=0.28±0.04), based on a perturbation of Elara on July 15, 1949 (when the distance between them became a mere 64246.04 kilometers). JPL's Solar System dynamics website assumes that Himalia has a mass of (GM=0.15) with a radius of .

Himalia's density will depend on whether it has an average radius of about (geometric mean from ''Cassini'') or a radius closer to .

Exploration

In November 2000, the '' Cassini'' spacecraft, en route to Saturn, made a number of images of Himalia, including photos from a distance of 4.4 million km. Himalia covers only a few pixels, but seems to be an elongated object with axes and , close to the Earth-based estimations.

In February and March 2007, the ''New Horizons'' spacecraft en route to Pluto made a series of images of Himalia, culminating in photos from a distance of 8 million km. Again, Himalia appears only a few pixels across.

Himalia ring

In September 2006, as NASA's ''New Horizons'' mission to Pluto approached Jupiter for a gravity assist, it photographed what appeared to be a faint new planetary ring parallel with and slightly inside Himalia's orbit. Because the small (4-km) moon Dia, which had a similar orbit to Himalia, had gone missing since its discovery in 2000, there was some speculation that the ring could be debris from an impact of Dia into Himalia, suggesting that Jupiter continued to gain and lose small moons through collisions.
However, an impact by an object the size of Dia would produce far more material than the calculated amount of ejected material needed to form the ring, although it is possible that a smaller, unknown moon may have been involved instead.
The recovery of Dia in 2010 and 2011 disproved any connection between Dia and the Himalia ring.

Notes

See also

* Moons of Jupiter

References

External links

"Himalia: Overview"
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NASA's Solar System Exploration




(by Scott S. Sheppard)

Two Irregular Satellites of Jupiter
(Himalia & Elara: Remanzacco Observatory: November 23, 2012)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Himalia (Moon)
Himalia group
Moons of Jupiter
Irregular satellites
19041203
Discoveries by Charles D. Perrine
Moons with a prograde orbit