NASA’s Juno spacecraft has unveiled a stunning, new view of the irregular moon Thebes during a flyby on May 1, 2026, showcasing a battered world from just 5,000 kilometers away.
Thebes moon captured by Juno during a flyby on May 1, 2026. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.
Thebes is a small, irregularly shaped moon of Jupiter, measuring approximately 116 x 98 x 84 km, with an average radius of about 49 km.
It ranks as the second largest of Jupiter’s inner moons and the seventh largest among all moons in the Jupiter system.
Discovered by astronomer Stephen Synnott in 1979 using images from NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft, Thebes orbits Jupiter at an average distance of about 221,900 km, well within the orbit of Io, the innermost Galilean moon of Jupiter. The moon completes one orbit in roughly 16.1 hours.
Like many of Jupiter’s inner moons, Thebes is tidally locked, so the same side always faces Jupiter.
Thebes features a heavily cratered surface with a dark reddish hue, and its most notable characteristic is the large impact crater Zethos, named after the mythical twins of Thebes.
Moreover, Thebes is a crucial contributor to the Spiraea rings, one of the faint outer rings of Jupiter’s ring system. Impacts from micrometeorites eject dust from its surface, forming a diffuse ring along Thebes’ orbit.
“Thebes is located at the outer edge of Jupiter’s faint ring system and is believed to play a significant role in the formation of Jupiter’s ‘Similarian’ rings through dust ejection,” stated NASA scientists.
The latest imagery of Thebes was acquired by the Stellar Reference Unit (SRU) aboard the Juno spacecraft, captured from a distance of about 5,000 km.
“Though the SRU’s primary purpose is navigating the starry sky, its exceptional sensitivity under low-light conditions also makes it a highly effective secondary scientific instrument,” the researchers noted.
“The SRU has previously been instrumental in discovering ‘shallow lightning’ in Jupiter’s atmosphere and imaging Jupiter’s intricate ring system.”
Source: www.sci.news
