The Solar System The Inner Planets The Outer Planets Inner and Outer Planets Compared Solar System Formation Table of Planets Solar System's Largest Objects Space A to Z Your Weight in Space Stars Galaxies The Milky Way
The Inner Planets The Sun Mercury Venus Earth Mars
The Outer Planets The Moon Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Dwarf Planets Ceres Pluto Haumea Makemake Eris Comets Small BODIES Halley Hale-Bopp Shoemaker-Levy Asteroids Meteors
Exploring Space The Space Shuttle Voyager Space Missions List Astronomy Famous Astronomers History of Astronomy Hubble Space Telescope James Webb Telescope
Space A to Z Your Weight in Space Useful Links Contact Us Bob the Alien on Facebook Bob the Alien on Twitter
Jupiter Menu  

Metis, a moon of Jupiter

Metis
Adrastea

Metis from Galileo orbiter, taken in January 2000, edited from original NASA/JPL/Cornell University
Classification
Natural satellite of Jupiter
Average distance from Jupiter
128,000 km
79,535 miles
Diameter across equator
43 km
27 miles
Time to orbit Jupiter
7 hours
Year of Discovery
1979
Origin of Name
Metis was a goddess in Greek mythology and the first wife of Zeus. Metis met her end by turning herself into a fly and getting swallowed by Zeus. She was the personification of intelligence. The moon Metis got its name in 1983.

Metis is the closest moon to Jupiter. It orbits the gigantic planet at a distance of about 128,000 kilometres (79,500 miles) and takes only 7 hours to travel around it. It was discovered in 1979 from pictures taken by the space craft Voyager 1 as it flew past Jupiter. It was identified as a moon in those pictures by the American astronomer Stephen P. Synott.

Metis is quite a small moon and very irregularly shaped, being nearly twice as large on one side than it is on its other sides. Its dimensions are 60 x 40 x 34 km (37 x 25 x 21 miles). Its small size means that it only appeared as a dot in the discovery photographs taken by Voyager 1.


Metis, Adrastea and Jupiter's Main Ring

All of the Outer Planets have rings. Unlike Saturn's which are easily visible, the rings of planets like Jupiter are very faint and difficult to see. Rings are often made up of material from nearby moons. Jupiter's main ring is no exception and is made up of dust and rocks that is shedded from Metis when objects like meteorites crash into it. Jupiter's main ring is also made up of material from Metis' neighbour, Adrastea.

Metis and Adrastea orbit very closely to Jupiter's main ring with Metis being on one side of it and Adrastea on the other. As well as producing the material that makes up the ring, the two moons appear to hold the ring in place by "sherherding" it.

Metis and Adrastea "shepherding" Jupiter's main ring, from New Horizons space craft in February 2007, courtesy of NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute
Stuff and more stuff

Why is Metis called Metis?

Metis is called Metis because that's its name


Metis
Adrastea
Twitter X logo Facebook logo Email icon
© 2000 - 2024 SULTANA BARBECUE