Taygete in two skies: a moon and a Pleiad

How one figure from Greek myth ended up naming both a star in Taurus and a moon of Jupiter.

Published 2026-10-23

Look up on a winter evening and you may see Taygete twice over: once as a star you can actually see, once as a moon you never will.^[7][1]

The myth

The Pleiades were seven sister-nymphs, companions of Artemis, daughters of the Titan Atlas and the Oceanid Pleione.^[6] Taygete was the mother of Lacedaemon by Zeus.^[6] In myth the sisters were placed in the sky as a cluster of stars.^[6]

The cluster

The Pleiades (Messier 45) are an open star cluster in Taurus, about 444 light-years away. The cluster contains over 1,000 stars and is dominated by hot blue stars formed in the last 100 million years.^[7]

The moon

Jupiter’s moons are traditionally named after lovers and favourites of Zeus/Jupiter.^[5] So when S/2000 J 9 was named in October 2002, Taygete was a natural choice.^[1]

Why the “-e”?

Names ending in “e” are reserved for Jupiter’s retrograde irregular moons, and Taygete orbits backwards.^[5][1]

Numbered citations link to the sources list on the Taygete overview page.