The names announced by the Paris-based International Astronomical Union (IAU) are drawn from the entourage of Zeus, the paramount god in Greek mythology, whose equivalent for the ancient Romans was Jupiter, also called Jove.

The 11 are Themisto, Iocaste, Harpalyke, Praxidike, Taygete, Chaldene, Kalyke, Callirrhoe, Megaclite, Isonoe and Erinome.

They correspond to 11 bodies that have been "officially confirmed" as Jovian satellites, bringing that tally to 27, IAU Secretary Hans Rickman told AFP on Thursday.

An additional 12 Jupiter satellites have been reported by astronomers, bringing the unofficial total to 39.

The new names build on a tradition of nomenclature dating back to 1613, when Dutch astronomers Johannes Kepler and Simon Marius thought it would be fun to name the Jovian moons after Zeus' many lovers.

They started this off by naming the four first ones Io, Europa, Callisto and Ganymede, which they claimed to have spotted independently from Galileo, whom history credits with the first observations of these satellites three years earlier.

As Zeus had a long list of amorous conquests, it was quite easy to baptise new moons as they were gradually identified over the centuries.

But the advent of high-powered telescopes has given the IAU's planetary namers a headache, for there are now many more moons and even Zeus' little black book has run out of pages.

According to the website astronomy.com, German amateur astronomer Juergen Blunck came up with the idea of naming new discoveries after children or relatives of the lovers.

Among the 11 are Harpalyke, a hunter-warrior goddess of the night who had a stable of sacred mares that she could outrun; Themisto, who murdered her own children in the mistaken belief that they were the offspring of a rival in love; and Taygete, one of the seven Pleiades.

The Pleiades were virgins who, according to rival myths, were changed by Zeus into doves, and then stars, to prevent them being ravished by the hunter Orion or alternatively committed suicide after their death of their sisters, the Hyades.

SPACE.WIRE