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 one of Jupiter's four inner moons. These are the four moons that are closest to Jupiter. The other inner moons are Adrastea, Amalthea and Thebe. The inner moons orbit within the orbits of Jupiter's largest moons - Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. Those moons are also known as the Galilean moons.

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

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

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.

Stuff and more stuff

Why is Metis called Metis?

Metis is called Metis because that's its name

Metis

Adrastea

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