Sponde’s September 2026 apojove

Why a moon with a 23.5-million-km mean distance swung out to 29.5 million km.

Published 2026-10-23

On 5 September 2026 Sponde reached apojove — its farthest point from Jupiter — at about 0.197 AU, or 29.5 million km.^[1]

What apojove means

“Apo-” means far and “-jove” refers to Jupiter. It is the Jupiter version of an aphelion.

A stretched orbit

Sponde’s orbit has a mean eccentricity of about 0.32, so its distance changes a lot over each 738-day lap.^[3]

An orbit that won’t sit still

Wikipedia notes that Sponde’s orbit is frequently changing.^[1] Distant moons are strongly tugged by the Sun, so their orbits shift from lap to lap.

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