Mundilfari (moon)
Appearance
Mundilfari or Saturn XXV, is a moon of Saturn. It was found by Brett J. Gladman, et al. in 2000, and given the designation S/2000 S 9.
Mundilfari is about 5.6 kilometres in diameter, and orbits Saturn at an average distance of 18,360,000 km in 928.806 days, at an inclination of 170° to the ecliptic (150° to Saturn's equator), with an eccentricity of 0.198.
Mundilfari may have formed from debris knocked off of Phoebe by big impacts at some point in the solar system's history.
It was named in August 2003 from Norse mythology, where Mundilfari is a Jotun or giant who is the father of the goddess Sol and the god Mani.
References
[change | change source]- IAUC 7538: S/2000 S 7, S/2000 S 8, S/2000 S 9 2000 December 7 (discovery)
- MPEC 2000-Y15: S/2000 S 1, S/2000 S 2, S/2000 S 7, S/2000 S 8, S/2000 S 9 2000 December 19 (discovery and ephemeris)
- IAUC 8177: Satellites of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus 2003 August 8 (naming the moon)