Erinome.space

Erinome and the Carme family

Same orbit, same colour, same origin: what links Jupiter’s Carme moons.

Published 2026-10-23

Erinome orbits Jupiter in a tight family of retrograde moons named after their largest member, Carme.[1]

Shared orbits

Carme-group moons orbit Jupiter at 23 to 24 million km, at inclinations of about 165°.[1]

Shared colour

They are all very similar in colour — light red — except for Kalyke, which is considerably redder.[2]

Shared origin

The group probably began as a D-type asteroid, possibly from the Hilda family or the Jupiter trojans, that broke apart in a collision before or after capture.[2] The parent may have been about 46 km across.[5]

Irregular shapes

None of the Carme moons is massive enough to pull itself into a sphere, so they are probably irregularly shaped.[2]

Numbered citations link to the sources list on the Erinome overview page.

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