Suttungr (moon)

Brett Gladman et al.

Suttungr ( Saturn XXIII) is one of the smaller outer moons of the planet Saturn.

Discovery

The discovery of Suttungr 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 September 23 until 27 November 2000, announced on 7 December 2000. Suttungr first received the provisional designation S/2000 S 12 It was named after the moon Suttungr, a giant from Norse mythology. Often the term Suttung is used for the moon, this name was also initially published. However, the Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature ( WGPSN ) of the International Astronomical Union ( IAU) decided later to use the original Norse spelling.

Path data

Suttungr orbiting Saturn on an eccentric orbit at an average distance of 19.465 million kilometers in 1016 days and 13 hours. The orbital eccentricity is 0.3336. The track is 175.811 ° inclined to the ecliptic and therefore retrograde, that is, the moon runs opposite to the direction of rotation of Saturn around the planet.

Structure and physical data

Suttungr has a diameter of 5.6 km. Its density is 2.3 g/m3 compared to the other Saturn moons relatively high. He is probably composed of water ice with a high proportion of silicate rock. He has a very dark surface with an albedo of 0.06, that is, only 6% of the incident sunlight is reflected.

With an apparent magnitude of 23.9 m, it is an extremely light faint object.

Suttungr may be a fragment of Saturn's moon Phoebe, which was blown off with a impact event.