Carme is one of the largest irregular satellites of Jupiter.
It was discovered by Seth Barnes Nicholson at Mount Wilson Observatory in California in July 1938.
It is named after the mythological Carme, mother by Zeus of Britomartis, a Cretan goddess. Carme did not receive its present name until 1975; before then, it was simply known as . It was sometimes called "Pan" between 1955 and 1975 (Pan is now the name of a satellite of Saturn).
Carme orbits Jupiter at an average distance of 22,579,859 km in 693.17 days, at an inclination of 165ð to the ecliptic, in a retrograde direction and with an eccentricity of 0.23. They are continuously changing due to solar and planetary perturbations.
It gives its name to the Carme group, made up of retrograde irregular moons orbiting Jupiter at distances ranging between 22.7âÂÂ23.5 million km, at an inclination of about 165ð, and eccentricities between 0.24 and 0.28.
With a diameter of (Albedo 3.5), it is the largest member of the Carme group and the fourth-largest irregular moon of Jupiter.
Like the other members of the Carme group (except for Kalyke) it is light red in color (BâÂÂV=0.76, VâÂÂR=0.47), similar to D-type asteroids.
The rotation period is approximately 10 hours and 24 min.
Carme probably did not form near Jupiter but was captured by Jupiter later. Like the other members of the Carme group, which have similar orbits, Carme is probably the remnant of a broken, captured heliocentric asteroid.