Discovery
Chaldene was discovered Nov. 23, 2000 by Scott S. Sheppard, David C. Jewitt, Yange R. Fernandez, and Eugene Magnier at an observatory on Mauna Kea in Hawaii.

Overview
Chaldene is a member of the Carme group, a family of Jovian satellites which have similar orbits and appearance and are therefore thought to have a common origin. The group probably began as a D-type asteroid (possibly from the Hilda family or the Jupiter Trojans) that suffered a collision which broke off a number of pieces, either before or after being captured by Jupiter's gravity. The largest remaining chunk (still retaining 99 percent of the group's mass) was named "Carme," and the smaller pieces became the other 16 moons in the Carme group.

All of the Carme moons are retrograde, which means that they orbit Jupiter in the opposite direction from the planet's rotation. Their orbits are also eccentric (elliptical rather than circular) and highly inclined with respect to Jupiter's equatorial plane. They all are very similar in color—light red—except for Kalyke, which is considerably redder than the others. All of these characteristics support the idea that the Carme satellites began as a captured asteroid, rather than forming as part of the original Jupiter system. None of the Carme members is massive enough to pull itself into a sphere, so they are probably all irregularly shaped.

Chaldene has a mean radius of about 1 mile (1.9 km). At a mean distance of about 14.3 million miles (23.1 million km) from Jupiter, the satellite takes about 724 Earth days to complete one orbit.

How Chaldene Got its Name
Originally called S/2000 J10, Chaldene was named for the mother of Solymos by Zeus, the Greek equivalent of the Roman god Jupiter.

A name ending in "e" was chosen in accordance with the International Astronomical Union's policy for designating outer moons with retrograde orbits.

Characteristics Of Chaldene
As with most of the other moons in the Carme group, Chaldene is light red in color. The moons in this group, including Chaldene, are also irregular in shape, rather than spherical. This is because these outer retrograde moons tend to lack the mass required to pull themselves into a more uniform shape.

Not a lot is known about the appearance or makeup beyond that it is largely formed of rock or other minerals, and it probably originated as a piece of an asteroid that broke off after a collision.

Chaldene has a retrograde orbit, thus it rotates in the opposite direction to the orbital path of Jupiter. This is also true for the other moons in the Carme group. Chaldene also has an eccentric orbit. An eccentric orbit refers to an orbital path that is elliptical in shape rather than circular. Eccentric orbits also have a high incline in comparison to the equatorial plane of the parent planet.

Statistics On Chaldene
Chaldene has a mass of approximately 74,933,421,654,860 kilograms. The density of this natural satellite has been estimated at 2.6 kilograms and its volume is 29 kilograms. The Equatorial radius of Chaldene is 2 kilometers, and the equatorial circumference is 11.9 kilometers. The surface area of this moon is 45.36 kilometers.

The escape velocity of Chaldene is 8 kilmoters an hour. Escape velocity refers to the speed at which the moon would be able to break free from Jupiter’s gravity.

The orbital period, or sidereel period, of Chaldene is 723.8 Earth days. This is the time in which it takes a satellite to fulfill a complete orbit of its parent planet.