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Bestla (moon)

Moon of Saturn

Summary

Moon of Saturn

Field	Value
name	Bestla
image	Bestla-cassini.png
caption	Bestla imaged by the Cassini spacecraft in September 2015
pronounced
named_after	Bestla
mpc_name	Saturn XXXIX
alt_names	S/2004 S 18
discovered	2004
discoverer	Scott S. Sheppard
David C. Jewitt
Jan T. Kleyna
Brian G. Marsden
orbit_ref
semimajor
inclination	136.3°
eccentricity	0.461
period	−1087.46 days
satellite_of	Saturn
group	Norse group
dimensions	15.56 × 7 × 5.98 km (modeled)
mean_diameter
rotation	h
pole_ecliptic_lat
albedo	0.06 (assumed)
spectral_type	g – r = 0.72 ± 0.07, r – i = 0.38 ± 0.07
magnitude	23.8
abs_magnitude	14.6

David C. Jewitt Jan T. Kleyna Brian G. Marsden

Bestla or Saturn XXXIX is a retrograde irregular moon of Saturn. Its discovery was announced by Scott S. Sheppard, David C. Jewitt, Jan Kleyna, and Brian G. Marsden on 4 May 2005, from observations taken between 13 December 2004 and 5 March 2005.

Description

Bestla is about 7 kilometres in diameter, and orbits Saturn at an average distance of 20,337,900 km in 1087 days, at an inclination of 136° to the ecliptic, in a retrograde direction and with an eccentricity of 0.461. Early observations from 2005 suggested that Bestla had a very high eccentricity of 0.77. Like many of the outer irregular moons of the giant planets, Bestla's eccentricity may vary as a result of the Kozai mechanism. Bestla rotates in a retrograde direction and makes a full rotation every hours. Like Kiviuq, it is likely to be a contact binary or binary object, as its light curve has strong variation in brightness and a plateau-like maximum not seen in the other irregulars.

Name

This moon was named in April 2007 after Bestla, a frost giantess from Norse mythology, who is a mother of Odin.

Notes

References

(2022-12-01). "Simulation of the Rotational Dynamics and Light Curves of Saturn's Small Moons in the Fast Rotation Mode". [[Springer Link]].
(2022-05-17). "Colors of Irregular Satellites of Saturn with the Dark Energy Camera". The Astronomical Journal.
Jacobson, R.A.. (2007-06-28). "Planetary Satellite Mean Orbital Parameters". JPL/NASA.
Brian G. Marsden. (2005-05-03). "MPEC 2005-J13 : Twelve New Satellites of Saturn". [[Minor Planet Center]].
(2019). "Cassini Observations of Saturn's Irregular Moons". [[Lunar and Planetary Institute]].
(2018). "Enceladus and the Icy Moons of Saturn". [[The University of Arizona Press]].

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

norse-group moons-of-saturn irregular-satellites discoveries-by-scott-s.-sheppard astronomical-objects-discovered-in-2005 moons-with-a-retrograde-orbit

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