Pandia (moon)

Pandia
Precovery image of Pandia taken by the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope in February 2003
Discovery[1][2]
Discovered byScott S. Sheppard
Discovery siteCerro Tololo Obs.
Discovery date23 March 2017
Designations
Designation
Jupiter LXV
Pronunciation/pænˈdaɪə/[3]
Named after
Πανδία Pandīa
S/2017 J 4
Orbital characteristics
Epoch 1 January 2000 (JD 2451545.0)
Satellite ofJupiter
GroupHimalia group
Proper orbital elements[4]
11,481,000 km (0.07675 AU) AU
0.179
29.0° (to ecliptic)
521.969928 deg / yr
0.68969 yr
(251.911 d)
Precession of perihelion
9201.409 arcsec / yr
Precession of the ascending node
4451.925 arcsec / yr
Physical characteristics
≈3 km[5]
Albedo0.04 (assumed)[5]
23.0[5]
16.2[1]

Pandia /pænˈdaɪə/, also designated Jupiter LXV, is a small outer natural satellite of Jupiter discovered by Scott S. Sheppard on 11 May 2018, using the 4.0-meter Víctor M. Blanco Telescope at Cerro Tololo Observatory, Chile. It was announced alongside nine other Jovian moons on 17 July 2018 and it provisionally designated S/2017 J 4 by the Minor Planet Center, after observations were collected over a long enough time span to confirm the satellite's orbit.[1] The satellite has been found in precovery observations as early as 2003.[citation needed]

Pandia is part of the Himalia group, a tight cluster of prograde irregular moons of Jupiter that follow similar orbits to Himalia at semi-major axes between 11–12 million km (6.8–7.5 million mi) and inclinations between 26–31°.[5] With an estimated diameter of 3 km (1.9 mi) for an absolute magnitude of 16.2, it is one of the smallest known members of the Himalia group.[5]

  1. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference MPEC-2018-O12 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference jplsats-disc was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Noah Webster (1884) A Practical Dictionary of the English Language
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference jplsats-elem was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ a b c d e Cite error: The named reference SheppardMoons was invoked but never defined (see the help page).