inner moon · moon of Jupiter
Thebe
A small, irregular inner moon of Jupiter, discovered in Voyager 1 images and a source of dust for a faint gossamer ring.
- Distance from Earth today
- 817.9 million km5.468 AU · light: 45 min 28 s
- Distance from the Sun today
- 795.2 million km5.315 AU
- As of
- 3 November 2026position from NASA/JPL orbital elements
Where it is today
Top view of the plane of Earth’s orbit, compressed distance scale. Open on the big map with the time slider →
Facts
- Diameter
- 98.6 km
- Mass
- 0.452 × 10¹⁸ kg
- Density
- 900 kg/m³
- Mean distance from the planet
- 221,900 km
- Orbital period
- 16.2 h
- Orbital eccentricity
- 0.018
- Orbital inclination
- 1.1°
Source of the figures: JPL SSD – Planetary Satellites (public domain).
Discovery: 1979 – Voyager science team
Description
Thebe is one of Jupiter's four small inner moons, orbiting just outside Amalthea. It was discovered in 1979 by the Voyager science team in images taken by Voyager 1. The Galileo spacecraft later photographed it in more detail, revealing an irregular, heavily cratered body with at least one crater that is very large for such a small moon. Dust blasted off Thebe by meteoroid impacts spreads out to form the outermost and faintest of Jupiter's gossamer rings.