Iocaste (moon)

Iocaste or Jupiter XXIV, is a non-spherical moon of Jupiter. It was found by a team of astronomers from the University of Hawaii led by Scott S. Sheppard in 2000, and given the designation S/2000 J 3.^[1][2]

Iocaste orbits Jupiter at an average distance of 20,723,000 km in 609.427 days, at an inclination of 147° to the ecliptic (146° to Jupiter's equator) with an orbital eccentricity of 0.2874.

It was named in October 2002 after Jocasta,^[3] the mother/wife of Oedipus in Greek mythology.

Iocaste belongs to the Ananke group, believed to be the remnants of a break-up of a captured asteroid.^[4][5]

The moon is about 5 kilometres in diameter^[6] and appears grey, similar to C-type asteroids.^[7]