- Bestla (moon)
Bestla (pronEng|ˈbɛstlə "BEST-lə)" or Saturn XXXIX (provisional designation S/2004 S 18) is a retrograde
irregular satellite of Saturn. Its discovery was announced byScott S. Sheppard ,David C. Jewitt ,Jan Kleyna , andBrian G. Marsden onMay 4 ,2005 , from observations taken betweenDecember 13 ,2004 , andMarch 5 ,2005 .Bestla is about 7 kilometres in diameter, and orbits Saturn at an average distance of 20,192,000 km in 1088 days, at an
inclination of 147° to theecliptic (151° to Saturn's equator), in a retrograde direction and with an eccentricity of 0.5176.cite web
date=2007-Jun-28
title=Planetary Satellite Mean Orbital Parameters
publisher=JPL/NASA
author=Jacobson, R.A. (2007) SAT270, SAT271
url=http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/?sat_elem#saturn
accessdate=2008-01-19] Back in 2005, early observations suggested that Bestla had a very high eccentricity of 0.77.cite web
date=2005 May 3
title=MPEC 2005-J13 : Twelve New Satellites of Saturn
publisher=Minor Planet Center
author=Brian G. Marsden
url=http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/mpec/K05/K05J13.html
accessdate=2008-01-19] Like many of the outerirregular moon s of thegas giant s, Bestla's eccentricity may vary as a result of theKozai mechanism .It was named in April 2007 after
Bestla , a frost giantess fromNorse mythology , mother ofOdin .References
External links
* [http://www.dtm.ciw.edu/sheppard/satellites/satsatdata.html Saturn's Known Satellites] (by
Scott S. Sheppard )
* [http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/~jewitt/saturn2005.html Jewitt's New Satellites of Saturn page]
* [http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iauc/08500/08523.html IAUC 8523: "New Satellites of Saturn"]May 4 2005 (discovery)
* [http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iauc/08800/08826.html IAUC 8826: "Satellites of Jupiter and Saturn"] (subscription-only)2007 April 5 (naming the moon)da:S/2004 S 18 sv:S/2004 S 18
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