Albiorix (moon)
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Albiorix is a prograde
irregular satellite In astronomy, an irregular moon, irregular satellite, or irregular natural satellite is a natural satellite following an orbit that is irregular in some of the following ways: Distant; inclined; highly elliptical; retrograde. They have often be ...
of
Saturn Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant, with an average radius of about 9 times that of Earth. It has an eighth the average density of Earth, but is over 95 tim ...
. It was discovered by
Holman Holman may refer to: People * Holman (surname), including people with the name * Holman (given name), a list of people with the name Places United States * Holman, Missouri, a former town * Holman, Texas, a settlement * Holman, Washington, a st ...
and colleagues in 2000, and given the temporary designation S/2000 S 11. Albiorix is the largest member of the
Gallic group The Gallic group is a dynamical grouping of the prograde irregular satellites of Saturn following similar orbits. Their semi-major axes range between 16 and 19 Gm, their inclinations between 36° and 41°, and their eccentricities between 0.4 ...
of irregular satellites.


Name

It was named in August 2003 for Albiorix, "a Gallic giant who was considered to be the king of the world." The name is known from an inscription found near the French town of
Sablet Sablet () is a commune in the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France. It is a fortified Provençal village rich in history. Population Geography Sablet is situated at the foot of the Dentelles de ...
which connects him with the Roman god
Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...
. It is still unclear if Albiorix was just an honorific suffix ( "Mars, king of the world") or a Celtic deity '' interpretatio'' with Mars.


Orbit

Albiorix orbits Saturn at a distance of about 16 million kilometers. The rotation period was measured by th
ISS camera
of the Cassini spacecraft to 13 hours and 19 minutes.T. Denk, S. Mottola, ''et al.'' (2011): Rotation Periods of Irregular Satellites of Saturn
EPSC/DPS conference 2011
Nantes (France)
abstract 1452
The diagram illustrates the Albiorigian orbit in relation to other prograde irregular satellites of Saturn. The eccentricity of the orbits is represented by the yellow segments extending from the
pericentre An apsis (; ) is the farthest or nearest point in the orbit of a planetary body about its primary body. The line of apsides (also called apse line, or major axis of the orbit) is the line connecting the two extreme values. Apsides perta ...
to the apocentre. Given the similarity of the orbital elements and the homogeneity of the physical characteristics with other members of the Gallic group, it was suggested that these satellites could have a common origin in the break-up of a larger moon.


Physical characteristics

The
James Webb Space Telescope The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a space telescope designed to conduct infrared astronomy. As the largest telescope in space, it is equipped with high-resolution and high-sensitivity instruments, allowing it to view objects too old, Lis ...
took the spectrum of Albiorix with
NIRSpec The NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrograph) is one of the four scientific instruments flown on the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The JWST is the follow-on mission to the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and is developed to receive more information ...
, detecting a 3.0
micron The micrometre (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English as used by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures; SI symbol: μm) or micrometer (American English), also commonly known by the non-SI term micron, is a uni ...
absorption feature associated with hydrated minerals, though water ice was not found to be present in substantial quantities. Additionally,
carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide is a chemical compound with the chemical formula . It is made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalent bond, covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in a gas state at room temperature and at norma ...
formed by irradiation of
organic compounds Some chemical authorities define an organic compound as a chemical compound that contains a carbon–hydrogen or carbon–carbon bond; others consider an organic compound to be any chemical compound that contains carbon. For example, carbon-co ...
was detected on Albiorix's surface. Albiorix appears nearly identical in its composition to
Siarnaq Siarnaq, also designated Saturn XXIX, is the second-largest irregular moon of Saturn. It was discovered on 23 September 2000 by a team of astronomers led by Brett J. Gladman. It was named after the Inuit goddess of the sea, Siarnaq, who is mor ...
, another Saturnian irregular satellite observed by James Webb Space Telescope. Measurements from
NEOWISE Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE, observatory code C51, Explorer 92 and MIDEX-6) was a NASA infrared astronomy space telescope in the Explorers Program launched in December 2009.. . WISE discovered thousands of minor planets and nu ...
constrain the
albedo Albedo ( ; ) is the fraction of sunlight that is Diffuse reflection, diffusely reflected by a body. It is measured on a scale from 0 (corresponding to a black body that absorbs all incident radiation) to 1 (corresponding to a body that reflects ...
of Albiorix at , in which case its diameter is a rather large . Albiorix is red in color, but some parts of its surface are less red than others. Varying colours suggest a possibility of a large crater, leading to an alternative hypothesis that
Erriapus Erriapus , or Saturn XXVIII (28), is a prograde irregular satellite of Saturn. It was discovered by Brett Gladman, John J. Kavelaars and colleagues in 2000, and given the temporary designation S/2000 S 10. It was named Erriapo ...
and Tarvos could be fragments of Albiorix following a near-break-up collision with another body. Grav, T.; and Bauer, J.
''A deeper look at the colors of Saturnian irregular satellites''
/ref> It has a rotation period of , and while one light curve measured by ''
Cassini–Huygens ''Cassini–Huygens'' ( ), commonly called ''Cassini'', was a space research, space-research mission by NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Italian Space Agency (ASI) to send a space probe to study the planet Saturn and its system, i ...
'' found two minima with a moderate perturbation in one of them, a different angle showed a sharp minimum and two shallower ones.


References


External links

* Ephemeri
from IAU-MPC NSES


{{DEFAULTSORT:Albiorix (Moon) Gallic group Moons of Saturn Irregular satellites Astronomical objects discovered in 2000 Moons with a prograde orbit