Metis is one of Jupiter’s many moons, which is currently believed to have at least 63. It is one of four moons that make up the ‘Inner Group’.
Where in the Solar System?
Metis is one of Jupiter’s many moons, which is currently believed to have at least 63. It is one of four moons that make up the ‘Inner Group’.
This is a group of four moons and as the name suggest they are situated closest to Jupiter at distances ranging from 128,000 – 200,000 km and taking between 7 and 16 hours to orbit the host planet. The Inner Group consists of Metis, Adrastea, Amalthea and Thebe, all of which are ‘irregular moon’ meaning they are not spherical due to their mass being too low (when cosmic bodies mass are large enough their gravity is able to shape the object into a sphere).
Metis
Metis is Jupiter’s closest moon, orbiting at around 128,000 km from the planet’s surface which is less than a third the distance of our own moon and earth (distance between earth and its moon is 384,400km).
Metis got its name from the Greek mythical goddess of the same name, who was the first spouse of Zeus. It was discovered on the 4th of March 1979 by Stephen P Synnott, an American Astronomer and scientist working on NASA’s Voyager mission.
Metis hurtles through space at an impressive 31.501 km/s (average speed) which is 70,465 miles per hour and takes only 7 hours 4.5mins to complete its orbit of Jupiter.
It is the second smallest of Jupiter’s inner moons measuring only 60 by 40 by 34 km with a mass of 3.6 x1016 kg and a density of 0.86g/cm3.
