Aster › Space program › Himalia
Himalia
Position on the route: 37/130 · level needed 95 · journey (Mk0 engine) 16.5 h
By the numbers
| Diameter | ≈ 170 km |
|---|---|
| Year | 250.6 days |
| Distance | 11,461,000 km |
| Found | 1904, Perrine |
The story
Himalia is the largest of Jupiter’s irregular moons and the head of the ‘Himalia family’. Charles Perrine found it in 1904. It circles 11.5 million km from Jupiter in the planet’s own direction, but on a tilted, elliptical orbit: a captured body. Five members of its family seem to come from the breakup of one large asteroid.
Cassini (2000) and New Horizons (2007) saw it as a few-pixel crescent. The surface is dark, with a make-up close to a C-type asteroid. Far outside the radiation belt: a relatively comfortable base in the Jupiter system.
Missions
- Cassini (2000) and New Horizons (2007) passes
- JUICE and Europa Clipper will study it from afar
Colony note
Low radiation and almost no gravity; a base for ice and carbon.
What probes bring back
- The largest of Jupiter’s irregular moons (≈170 km); found by Perrine in 1904 and circling 11.5 million km out.
- Head of the ‘Himalia family’ of fragments of a captured asteroid; imaged from afar by Cassini (2000) and New Horizons (2007).