Arche was discovered Oct. 31, 2002, by Scott S. Sheppard at the Mauna Kea Observatory in Hawaii.




Arche has a mean radius of about 1 mile (1.5 km). At a mean distance of about 14.5 million miles (23.4 million) km from Jupiter, the satellite takes about 732 Earth days to complete one orbit.

How Arche Got its Name

Satellites in the Jovian system are named for Zeus/Jupiter's lovers and descendants. Names of outer satellites with a prograde orbit generally end with the letter "a" (although an "o" ending has been reserved for some unusual cases), and names of satellites with a retrograde orbit end with an "e."

Originally called S/2002 J1, Arche was named for one of the Muses, who were daughters of Zeus, the Greek equivalent of the Roman god Jupiter. Her name means "beginning."​

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