Science · Iocaste

What the research says about Iocaste

Almost nothing has been published about Iocaste on its own, so this page uses four family-level papers, all free to read on arXiv, about the group it belongs to. Each one is clearly labeled “Family-level”.

Papers 4
Topics 3
Reviewed Oct 24, 2026
Source arXiv.org

Illustrative · not to scale

Our own artist's impression. No figures are taken from the papers.

Size, shape & spin

1 paper

How big Iocaste is, what shape it has and how it spins.

[1]2020astro-ph.EPPreprintFamily-level

Revisiting the distributions of Jupiter's irregular moons: I. physical characteristics

Fabao Gao & Xia Liu

What they foundThe physical properties of the Ananke- and Carme-group moons follow log-logistic distributions.

Why it mattersIt describes how sizes and masses are spread within these families.

Family-level context: this paper studies the Ananke and Carme groups (and the Pasiphae group) as statistical populations, not Iocaste specifically.

What they studied

Statistical tests of more than 20 distributions.

arXiv:2003.04810Abstract (opens arXiv)PDF (opens arXiv)

Orbit & dynamics

1 paper

How Iocaste moves, and the gravity and sunlight forces that shape its path.

[2]2020astro-ph.EPPreprintFamily-level

Revisiting the distributions of Jupiter's irregular moons: II. orbital characteristics

Fabao Gao & Xia Liu

What they foundThe orbits of the Ananke, Carme and Pasiphae groups follow describable statistical distributions.

Why it mattersIt summarises how these family orbits are spread.

Family-level context: this paper studies the orbits of the Ananke, Carme and Pasiphae groups as populations, not Iocaste specifically.

What they studied

Statistical tests of 19 distributions on orbital elements.

arXiv:2003.04851Abstract (opens arXiv)PDF (opens arXiv)

Origins & history

2 papers

Where Iocaste came from and how it formed and changed over time.

[3]2017astro-ph.EPPreprintFamily-level

Cladistical analysis of the Jovian and Saturnian satellite systems

Timothy. R. Holt, Adrian. J. Brown, David Nesvorný & 2 others

What they foundCladistics, a method from biology, sorts Jupiter's and Saturn's moons into families that match known groupings.

Why it mattersIt gives a new way to classify irregular moons like Iocaste.

Family-level context: this paper studies the satellite families of Jupiter and Saturn, not Iocaste specifically.

What they studied

Cladistic analysis of orbital, physical and compositional traits.

arXiv:1706.01423Abstract (opens arXiv)PDF (opens arXiv)

[4]2025astro-ph.EPPreprintFamily-level

JWST Reveals Varied Origins Between Jupiter's Irregular Satellites

Benjamin N. L. Sharkey, Andrew S. Rivkin, Richard J. Cartwright & 3 others

What they foundJWST spectra show Jupiter's irregular moons have varied origins; small moons track the colours of their family's largest member.

Why it mattersIt covers Carme, Ananke and Pasiphae, the parents of the groups these small moons belong to.

Family-level context: this paper studies eight of Jupiter's larger irregular moons, including Carme, Ananke and Pasiphae, the namesakes of the retrograde groups, not Iocaste specifically.

What they studied

JWST NIRSpec spectra of eight irregular moons.

arXiv:2501.16484Abstract (opens arXiv)PDF (opens arXiv)

New research

New papers on Iocaste, checked weekly, summarized after a person reads it.

RSS feed

No new papers on Iocaste this week. We check arXiv every week.

How we choose papers

We search arXiv for Iocaste papers and keep the ones that add something new, are clearly written up and are relevant to a general reader. A person reads every abstract.

Our own words, our own drawings

Summaries are written by us from each paper’s abstract, not copied. Diagrams are our own simplified drawings, not figures from the papers.

Preprint vs. peer-reviewed

“Peer-reviewed” means arXiv lists a journal reference for the paper. Everything else is marked “Preprint”: shared openly, possibly before or without journal review.

Paper metadata courtesy of arXiv. Summaries written by us; read the original papers via the links. Paper metadata from arXiv.org, which does not endorse this site.