Elara

Elara may refer to one of the following:

Elara (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Elara was a mortal princess, the daughter of King Orchomenus and mother of the giant Tityos by Zeus.

Myth

Zeus fell in love with Elara and hid her from his wife Hera's jealousy by placing her deep beneath the Earth. This was where she gave birth to Tityos, a giant who is sometimes said to be the son of Gaia, the Earth goddess, for this reason. It is further added that Elara died in labour because of the enormous size of her baby.

The cave through which Tityos was believed to have come to the surface of Earth was located on Euboea and referred to as Elarion.

Eponymy

One moon of Jupiter is named Elara.

References

Elara (moon)

Elara (/ˈɛlərə/ EL-ər-ə; Greek: Ελάρα) is a prograde irregular satellite of Jupiter. It was discovered by Charles Dillon Perrine at Lick Observatory in 1905. It is the eighth largest moon of Jupiter and is named after Elara, one of Zeus's lovers and the mother of the giant Tityos.

Elara did not receive its present name until 1975; before then, it was simply known as Jupiter VII. It was sometimes called "Hera" between 1955 and 1975. It has a mean radius of just 43 km, thus it is 2% of the size of Europa. However it is half the size of Himalia, so it is the second biggest moon in the Himalia group. It might be a captured type C or D asteroid, for it reflects very little light.

Elara belongs to the Himalia group, five moons orbiting between 11 and 13 Gm from Jupiter at an inclination of about 27.5°. Its orbital elements are as of January 2000. They are continuously changing due to solar and planetary perturbations.

New Horizons encounter

In February and March 2007, the New Horizons spacecraft to Pluto captured Elara in several LORRI images from a distance of five million miles.