Aster › Space program › Elara
Elara
Position on the route: 38/130 · level needed 96 · journey (Mk0 engine) 16.5 h
By the numbers
| Diameter | ≈ 86 km |
|---|---|
| Year | 259.6 days |
| Distance | 11,741,000 km |
| Found | 1905, Perrine |
The story
Elara is the second-largest member of the Himalia family; Charles Perrine found it in 1905. An irregular moon circling 11.7 million km from Jupiter in the planet’s own direction. It is named for Elara, one of Zeus’s lovers.
A dark, carbon-rich body, a piece of a captured asteroid. Well outside the radiation belt, it is one of the calmer corners of the Jupiter system.
Missions
- Cassini (2000) and New Horizons (2007): distant images
Colony note
Low radiation; a base for ice and carbon.
What probes bring back
- The second largest of the Himalia family (≈ 86 km); found by Perrine in 1905, with an orbit of 11.7 million km.
- A dark, carbon-rich asteroid fragment.