Editing 9 Metis (section)

==Family relationships==
Metis was once considered to be a member of an [[asteroid family]] known as the Metis family,<ref name="Williams92">J. G. Williams, ''Asteroid Families – An Initial Search'', Icarus Vol. 96, p. 251 (1992).</ref> but more recent searches for prominent families did not recognize any such group, nor is a clump evident in the vicinity of Metis by visual inspection of [[proper orbital elements|proper orbital element]] diagrams.

However, a spectroscopic analysis found strong spectral similarities between Metis and [[113 Amalthea]], and it is suggested that these asteroids may be remnants of a very old (at least ~1 [[giga-annum|Ga]]) dynamical family whose smaller members have been pulverised by collisions or perturbed away from the vicinity. The putative parent body is estimated to have been 300 to 600&nbsp;km in diameter ([[4 Vesta|Vesta]]-sized) and [[planetary differentiation|differentiated]].<ref name="Kelley00" /> Metis would be the relatively intact core remnant (though smaller than [[16 Psyche]]), and Amalthea a fragment of the mantle, with 90% of the original body unaccounted for.<ref name="Kelley00" /> Coincidentally, both Metis and Amalthea have namesakes among [[Jupiter's inner moons]].