S/2003 J 16 Explained

S/2003 J 16
Discovery Ref: 
Discoverer:Brett J. Gladman
John J. Kavelaars
Jean-Marc Petit
Lynne Allen
Discovery Site:Mauna Kea Obs.
Discovered:6 February 2003
Orbit Ref: 
Epoch:17 December 2020 (JD 2459200.5)
Observation Arc:15.26 yr (5,574 d)
Eccentricity:0.3330999
Period:–1.64 yr (–600.18 d)
Mean Anomaly:88.24314°
Mean Motion: / day
Inclination:151.16323°
28.83677°
Asc Node:83.26365°
Arg Peri:86.51495°
Satellite Of:Jupiter
Group:Ananke group
Mean Diameter:
Albedo:0.04
Magnitude:23.3
Abs Magnitude:16.3

is a natural satellite of Jupiter. It was discovered by a team of astronomers led by Brett J. Gladman in 2003.[1]

is about 2 kilometres in diameter, and orbits Jupiter at an average distance of in 600 days, at an inclination of 151° to the ecliptic (149° to Jupiter's equator), in a retrograde direction and with an eccentricity of 0.333. It belongs to the Ananke group of retrograde irregular moons which orbit Jupiter between 19.3 and 22.7 Gm, at inclinations of roughly 150°.

This moon was once considered lost[2] [3] until September 2010, when it was recovered by Christian Veillet with Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT). However, the recovery observations of S/2003 J 16 were not reported by the Minor Planet Center until 2020, when Ashton et al. independently identified the moon in the same CFHT images taken by Veillet back in September 2010. S/2003 J 16 was also identified in observations by Scott Sheppard from March 2017 to May 2018, cumulating a long observation arc of 5,574 days (15 years) since its discovery. The recovery of S/2003 J 16 was formally announced by the Minor Planet Center on 4 November 2020.

Notes and References

  1. http://cbat.eps.harvard.edu/iauc/08100/08116.html IAUC 8116: Satellites of Jupiter and Saturn
  2. Web site: Outer-Planet Moons Found — and Lost . Beatty . Kelly . 4 April 2012 . www.skyandtelescope.com . Sky & Telescope . 27 June 2017.
  3. Web site: New Moons of Jupiter Announced in 2017 . Sheppard . Scott S. . 2017 . home.dtm.ciw.edu . 27 June 2017 . We likely have all of the lost moons in our new observations from 2017, but to link them back to the remaining lost 2003 objects requires more observations a year later to confirm the linkages, which will not happen until early 2018. ... There are likely a few more new moons as well in our 2017 observations, but we need to reobserve them in 2018 to determine which of the discoveries are new and which are lost 2003 moons..