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Metis: Jupiter
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Metis [MEE-tis] is the innermost known satellite of Jupiter. It was named after a Titaness who was a consort of Zeus (Jupiter). Metis and Adrastea lie within Jupiter's main ring and may be the source of material for the ring. Very little is known about Metis.
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Metis is the innermost of Jupiter's four small inner moons. It orbits Jupiter at a distance of ~128,000 km (1.79 Jupiter radii) within the planet's Main Ring. Its orbit has very small eccentricity (~0.0002) and inclination (~ 0.06°) relative to the equator of Jupiter.[1][2]
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Metis was discovered by S. Synnott of the Voyager team in 1979. It is the moon closest to Jupiter, with a standoff distance of 127,960 km. Metis is one of the small moons, and is about the size of the city of Los Angeles, at about 40 km (25 miles) wide.
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Metis's orbit lies ~1000km within the main ring of Jupiter. It orbits within a ~500km wide 'gap' or 'notch' in the ring.[10][2] The gap is clearly somehow related to the moon but the origin of this connection has not been established. Metis supplies a significant part of the Main Ring’s dust.[11] This material appears to consist primarily of material that is ejected from the surfaces of Jupiter's four small inner satellites by meteorite impacts. It is easy for the impact ejecta to be lost from the satellites into space because the satellites' surfaces lie fairly close to the edge of their Roche spheres due to their low density.[2]
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