Aegir (moon)

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Short description: Moon of Saturn
Aegir
Discovery
Discovered byS. Sheppard, D. Jewitt, J. Kleyna, and B. Marsden
Discovery dateMay 4, 2005
Designations
Designation
Saturn XXXVI
Pronunciation/ˈjɪər, ˈæɡɪər/ etc.
Named afterÆgir
S/2004 S 10
Orbital characteristics
20,735,000 km[1]
Eccentricity0.252[1]
Orbital period1,025.908 d
Inclination166.7°[1]
Satellite ofSaturn
GroupNorse group
Physical characteristics
Mean diameter6+50%
−30%
 km
[1]


Aegir, also Saturn XXXVI (provisional designation S/2004 S 10), is a natural satellite of Saturn. Its discovery was announced by Scott S. Sheppard, David C. Jewitt, Jan Kleyna, and Brian G. Marsden on May 4, 2005, from observations taken between December 12, 2004, and March 11, 2005.

Aegir is about 6 kilometres in diameter, and orbits Saturn at an average distance of 19,618 Mm in 1025.908 days, at an inclination of 167° to the ecliptic (140° to Saturn's equator), in a retrograde direction and with an eccentricity of 0.237.

Name

The moon was named in April 2007 after Ægir, a giant from Norse mythology, the personification of tranquil seas, the one who soothes storms away. He is a son of Fornjót, and brother of Logi (fire, flame) and Kári (wind). The exoplanet Epsilon Eridani b (AEgir) was also named after this figure in 2015.[2]

The name may be pronounced various ways. /ˈjɪər/ (with the 'g' pronounced as a y-sound) approximates modern Norwegian and Icelandic. /ˈæɡɪər/ (with a hard 'g') approximates what the Old Norse may have sounded like, while the Latinized/spelling pronunciations /ˈɪər/, /ˈɛɪər/ and /ˈɪər/ are also found.[3][4][5]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Ma, Yuehua et al. (2010), "On the Origin of Retrograde Orbit Satellites around Saturn and Jupiter", Icy Bodies of the Solar System, Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union, IAU Symposium 263: pp. 157–160, doi:10.1017/S1743921310001687, Bibcode2010IAUS..263..157M. 
  2. "Final Results of NameExoWorlds Public Vote Released". International Astronomical Union. 15 December 2015. http://www.iau.org/news/pressreleases/detail/iau1514/. 
  3. Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature (1995)
  4. "Aegir". Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House. https://www.dictionary.com/browse/Aegir. 
  5. Harold Stanford (1922) The Standard Reference Work: For the Home, School and Library

External links




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