Metis (moon)

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/metis-moon

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. How heavy is Metis (moon)?Approximately 1.2 x 10^17 kg
2. What is the orbital semi-major axis?128,000 km (0.000856 AU)
3. What is the orbital period?7.74 hours
4. What is Metis and how close is it to Jupiter?Metis is Jupiter's closest moon, orbiting about 128,000 kilometers (79,500 miles) from the planet's center. It sits well inside Jupiter's magnetosphere and very close to the planet's cloud tops.
5. How fast does Metis orbit Jupiter?Metis completes one full orbit in just 7 hours and 57 minutes, almost the same time it takes Jupiter to spin once. This means it is in sync with Jupiter's magnetic field.

Magnetosphere: The region around a planet dominated by its magnetic field, trapping charged particles.
Co-accretion: The process where celestial bodies form from a disk of gas and dust around a larger body.
Hydrostatic Equilibrium: The balance between gravity and internal pressure that makes a celestial body spherical.