Suttungr (moon)

Suttungr (pronEng|ˈsʊtʊŋɡɚ "SOOT-oong-gər)," or Saturn XXIII, is a natural satellite of Saturn. It was discovered by Brett J. Gladman, et al. in 2000, and given the temporary designation S/2000 S 12.

Suttungr is about 5.6 kilometres in diameter, and orbits Saturn at an average distance of 19,667 Mm in 1029.703 days, at an inclination of 174° to the ecliptic (151° to Saturn's equator), in a retrograde direction and with an eccentricity of 0.131.

Suttungr may have formed from debris knocked off of Phoebe at some point in the past.

It was named in August 2003 from Norse mythology, where Suttung is a Jotun or giant who once owned the mead of poetry.

The name was announced as Suttung in [http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iauc/08100/08177.html IAU Circular 8177] . However, the IAU Working Group on Planetary System Nomenclature later decided to add the nominative case ending "-r" to the base form "Suttung".

References

* [http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iauc/07500/07548.html IAUC 7548: "S/2000 S 12"] 2000 December 23 (discovery)
* [http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/mpec/K00/K00Y33.html MPEC 2000-Y33: "S/2000 S 12"] 2000 December 22 (recovery/discovery and ephemeris)
* [http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iauc/08100/08177.html IAUC 8177: "Satellites of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus"] 2003 August 8 (naming the moon "Suttung")
* [http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iauc/08400/08471.html IAUC 8471: "Satellites of Saturn"] 2005 January 21 (correcting the name)