Carme group


The Carme group is a group of retrograde irregular satellites of Jupiter that follow similar orbits to Carme and are thought to have a common origin.
Their semi-major axes range between 22.7 and 23.6 million km, their orbital inclinations between 164.4° and 164.9°, and their orbital eccentricities between 0.25 and 0.28.
The Carme group members are :
Image:TheIrregulars JUPITER Carme CORE.svg|thumb|right|300px|This diagram compares the orbital elements and relative sizes of the core members of the Carme group. The horizontal axis illustrates their average distance from Jupiter, the vertical axis their orbital inclination, and the circles their relative sizes.
NameDiameter
Semi-Major Axis
Period
Notes
Carme46–719.28largest member and group prototype
Kalyke5–726.70substantially redder than the others
Erinome3–714.05
Isonoe4–711.66
Taygete5–717.59
Chaldene4–709.36
Pasithee2–705.41
Kale2–715.02
Aitne3–715.54
Arche3–717.11
Eukelade4–715.69
Eirene4–715.19
S/2003 J 91–721.88
S/2003 J 102–730.74
Kallichore2–713.59
Herse2–719.63
S/2003 J 192–719.92
S/2003 J 242–707.33
S/2010 J 12–721.43
S/2011 J 12–718.42
S/2017 J 22–710.42
S/2017 J 52–722.20
S/2017 J 81–704.42
S/2016 J 32–699.76
S/2018 J 31–731.49
S/2021 J 41–713.71
S/2021 J 52–732.15
S/2021 J 61–706.77
S/2022 J 12–700.93
S/2022 J 21–716.21
S/2017 J 112–712.38

The International Astronomical Union reserves names ending in -e for all retrograde moons.

Origin

The very low dispersion of the mean orbital elements among the core members suggests that the Carme group may once have been a single body that was broken apart by an impact. The dispersion can be explained by a very small velocity impulse. The parent body was probably about the size of Carme, 46 km in diameter; 99% of the group's mass is still located in Carme.
Further support to the single body origin comes from the known colours: all the satellites appear light red, with colour indices B-V= 0.76 and V-R= 0.47 and infrared spectra, similar to D-type asteroids. These data are consistent with a progenitor from the Hilda family or a Jupiter trojan.