Kale , also known as , is a retrograde

irregular satellite In astronomy, an irregular moon, irregular satellite or irregular natural satellite is a natural satellite following a distant, inclined, and often eccentric and retrograde orbit. They have been captured by their parent planet, unlike regular s ...

Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but slightly less than one-thousand ...

. It was discovered in 2001 by astronomers Scott S. Sheppard, D. Jewitt, and J. Kleyna, and was originally designated as .MPEC 2002-J54: ''Eleven New Satellites of Jupiter''
2002 May (discovery and ephemeris) Kale is about in diameter, and orbits Jupiter at an average distance of in 736.55 days, at an

inclination Orbital inclination measures the tilt of an object's orbit around a celestial body. It is expressed as the angle between a reference plane and the orbital plane or axis of direction of the orbiting object. For a satellite orbiting the Ea ...

of 165° to the

ecliptic The ecliptic or ecliptic plane is the orbital plane of the Earth around the Sun. From the perspective of an observer on Earth, the Sun's movement around the celestial sphere over the course of a year traces out a path along the ecliptic agains ...

(166° to Jupiter's equator), in a retrograde direction and with an

orbital eccentricity In astrodynamics, the orbital eccentricity of an astronomical object is a dimensionless parameter that determines the amount by which its orbit around another body deviates from a perfect circle. A value of 0 is a circular orbit, values bet ...

of 0.2011. It was named in August 2003IAUC 8177: ''Satellites of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus''
2003 August (naming the moon) after

Kale Kale (), or leaf cabbage, belongs to a group of cabbage (''Brassica oleracea'') cultivars grown for their edible leaves, although some are used as ornamentals. Kale plants have green or purple leaves, and the central leaves do not form a hea ...

, one of the

Charites In Greek mythology, the Charites ( ), singular ''Charis'', or Graces, were three or more goddesses of charm, beauty, nature, human creativity, goodwill, and fertility. Hesiod names three – Aglaea ("Shining"), Euphrosyne ("Joy"), and Tha ...

( grc-gre, Χάριτες, la, Gratiae, 'Graces'), daughters of

Zeus Zeus or , , ; grc, Δῐός, ''Diós'', label= genitive Boeotian Aeolic and Laconian grc-dor, Δεύς, Deús ; grc, Δέος, ''Déos'', label= genitive el, Δίας, ''Días'' () is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek relig ...

(Jupiter). Kale is the spouse of

Hephaestus Hephaestus (; eight spellings; grc-gre, Ἥφαιστος, Hḗphaistos) is the Greek god of blacksmiths, metalworking, carpenters, craftsmen, artisans, sculptors, metallurgy, fire (compare, however, with Hestia), and volcanoes.Walter B ...

according to some authors (although most have

Aphrodite Aphrodite ( ; grc-gre, Ἀφροδίτη, Aphrodítē; , , ) is an ancient Greek goddess associated with love, lust, beauty, pleasure, passion, and procreation. She was syncretized with the Roman goddess . Aphrodite's major symbols incl ...

play that role). It belongs to the

Carme group The Carme group is a group of retrograde irregular satellites of Jupiter that follow similar orbits to Carme and are thought to have a common origin. Their semi-major axes (distances from Jupiter) range between 22.9 and 24.1 Gm, their orbit ...

, made up of irregular retrograde moons orbiting Jupiter at a distance ranging between and at an inclination of about 165°.

References

Carme group Moons of Jupiter Irregular satellites Discoveries by Scott S. Sheppard 20011209 Discoveries by David C. Jewitt Discoveries by Jan Kleyna Moons with a retrograde orbit {{Astronomy-stub