Himalia

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Himalia is seen by spacecraft Cassini. Credit: .

Mean orbit radius of Himalia around Jupiter is 11,460,000 km[1]

Period is 250.56 d (0.704 a)[1]

"Unfortunately the numeration of Jupiter's satellites is now in precisely the same confusion as that of Saturn's system was before the numbers were abandoned and names substituted. A similar course would seem to be advisable here; the designation V for the inner satellite [Amalthea] was tolerated for a time, as it was considered to be in a class by itself; but it has now got companions, so that this subterfuge disappears. The substitution of names for numerals is certainly more poetic."[2]

The moon was sometimes called Hestia, after the Hestia the Greek goddess, from 1955 to 1975.[3]

At a distance of about 11.5 million km from Jupiter, Himalia takes about 251 Earth days to complete one orbit.[4] It is the largest member of the Himalia group, the moons orbiting between 11.4 and 13 million kilometres from Jupiter at an inclination of about 27.5°.[5] The orbital elements are as of January 2000.[1]

References

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  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Jacobson, R. A. (2000). "The orbits of outer Jovian satellites". Astronomical Journal 120 (5): 2679–2686. doi:10.1086/316817. https://trs.jpl.nasa.gov/bitstream/2014/15175/1/00-1187.pdf. 
  2. Crommelin, A. C. D. (March 10, 1905). "Provisional Elements of Jupiter's Satellite VI". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 65 (5): 524–527. doi:10.1093/mnras/65.5.524. 
  3. Payne-Gaposchkin, Cecilia; Katherine Haramundanis (1970). Introduction to Astronomy. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall. ISBN 0-13-478107-4. 
  4. "Himalia". Solar System Exploration. NASA. December 5, 2017. Retrieved 2018-09-09.
  5. Jewitt, David C.; Sheppard, Scott; Porco, Carolyn (2004). "Jupiter's Outer Satellites and Trojans". In Bagenal, F.. Jupiter: The planet, Satellites and Magnetosphere. Cambridge University Press. http://www.dtm.ciw.edu/users/sheppard/pub/Sheppard04JupChapter.pdf.