Siarnaq (moon)

Brett Gladman et al.

Siarnaq ( Saturn XXIX) is one of the middle outer moons of the planet Saturn.

Discovery

The discovery of Siarnaq by a team consisting of Brett Gladman, John J. Kavelaars, Jean -Marc Petit, Hans Scholl, Matthew J. Holman, Brian G. Marsden, Philip D. Nicholson, Joseph A. Burns on recordings from 23 to to 29 September 2000 was announced on 25 October 2000. Siarnaq first received the provisional designation S/2000 S 3 was named the moon after Siarnaq, a goddess from mythology of the Inuit.

Path data

Siarnaq orbiting Saturn on an eccentric orbit at an average distance of 18.18 million km in around 896 ½ days. The orbital eccentricity is 0.28, the orbit is tilted by almost 46 ° to the ecliptic, which is virtually identical at this distance from Saturn to the Laplace plane.

Siarnaq belongs to the Inuit group of Saturn's moons.

Structure and physical data

The diameter of Siarnaq is estimated to be about 40 km. He has a very dark surface with an albedo of about 0.06, that is, only about 6 % of the incident sunlight is reflected. With an apparent magnitude of 20.1 m, it is an extremely light faint object. The rotation period of Siarnaq is about 10 ¼ hours. This is Siarnaq from all around Saturn orbiting in prograde direction moons the one with the shortest day - night cycle. However, at least five retrograde moons orbiting Saturn have even shorter rotation periods.