Praxidike (moon)
Template:Short description Template:Infobox planet
Praxidike Template:IPAc-en, also known as Template:Nowrap, is a retrograde irregular satellite of Jupiter. It was discovered by a team of astronomers from the University of Hawaiʻi led by Scott S. Sheppard in 2000,<ref>IAUC 7555: Satellites of Jupiter January 5, 2001 (discovery)</ref><ref name="MPEC">MPEC 2001-A29: S/2000 J 7, S/2000 J 8, S/2000 J 9, S/2000 J 10, S/2000 J 11 January 15, 2001 (discovery and ephemeris)</ref> and given the temporary designation Template:Nowrap.
It was named in August 2003 after Praxidike,<ref>IAUC 7998: Satellites of Jupiter 2002 October 22 (naming the moon)</ref> the Greek goddess of punishment.
Orbit
Praxidike orbits Jupiter at an average distance of 20,824,000 km in 609.25 days, at an inclination of 144° to the ecliptic (143° to Jupiter's equator), in a retrograde direction and with an eccentricity of 0.1840.
Praxidike belongs to the Ananke group, believed to be the remnants of a break-up of a captured heliocentric asteroid.<ref name="SheppardJewitt2003">Sheppard, S. S., Jewitt, D. C.; An Abundant Population of Small Irregular Satellites Around Jupiter Template:Webarchive, Nature, Volume 423 (May 2003), pages 261–263</ref><ref name="Nesvorny2003">Nesvorný, D.; Alvarellos, J. L. A.; Dones, L.; and Levison, H. F.; Orbital and Collisional Evolution of the Irregular Satellites, The Astronomical Journal, Volume 126 (2003), pages 398–429</ref> With an estimated diameter of 7 km, Praxidike is the second largest member of the group after Ananke itself (assumed albedo of 0.04).<ref name="SheppardJewittPorco2004">Sheppard, S. S.; Jewitt, D. C.; Porco, C.; Jupiter's Outer Satellites and Trojans Template:Webarchive, in Jupiter: The Planet, Satellites and Magnetosphere, edited by Fran Bagenal, Timothy E. Dowling, and William B. McKinnon, Cambridge Planetary Science, Volume 1, Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, Template:ISBN, 2004, pages 263–280</ref>
Characteristics
The satellite appears grey (colour indices B-V=0.77, R-V= 0.34), typical of C-type asteroids.<ref name="Grav2003">Grav, T.; Holman, M. J.; Gladman, B. J.; Aksnes, K.; Photometric Survey of the Irregular Satellites, Icarus, Volume 166 (2003), pages 33–45</ref> Template:Clear
References
- Ephemeris IAU-MPC NSES
- Mean orbital parameters NASA JPL