Erinome

High school (ages 12+)
Space & Astronomy

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/erinome

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the classification?Irregular moon of Jupiter
2. What is the estimated diameter?Approximately 10 kilometers (6 miles)
3. How far is Erinome from Jupiter?Erinome is roughly 21 million kilometers away from Jupiter, much farther than the big Galilean moons.
4. Why does Erinome look irregular?Its uneven shape shows it may have been captured by Jupiter or broken up from a larger body, unlike the round regular moons.

Irregular Moon: A moon with a distant, inclined, and often eccentric orbit, typically captured asteroids or fragments of larger bodies.
Retrograde Orbit: An orbit in the opposite direction of the planet's rotation, common among captured irregular moons.
Semi-major Axis: The average distance between the center of an orbiting body and the center of the body it orbits.
Planetary Capture: The process by which a celestial body, like an asteroid or moon, is gravitationally bound to a planet.