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Adrastea (ad'-rə-stee'-ə, , Greek Αδράστεια), or Jupiter XV, is the second of Jupiter's known moons (counting outward from the planet). It was discovered on Voyager 2 probe photographs taken in 1979 and received the designation S/1979 J 1 (IAUC 3454) after the discovery had been announced in Science (vol. 206, p. 951, November 23, 1979). In 1983 it was officially named after the mythological Adrastea, daughter of Jupiter and Ananke. It is the smallest of the inner satellites of Jupiter. Adrastea is the first natural satellite to be discovered through the use of images taken by an interplanetary spacecraft, rather than through telescopic photography. Adrastea is inside Jupiter's planetary ring and may be the source of some of its material. Its orbit lies inside Jupiter's synchronous orbit radius, and as a result tidal forces are slowly causing its orbit to decay. It is also within Jupiter's Roche limit, but is dense or rigid enough to avoid tidal disruption.
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