Albiorix is a prograde

irregular satellite In astronomy, an irregular moon, irregular satellite or irregular natural satellite is a natural satellite following a distant, inclined, and often eccentric and retrograde orbit. They have been captured by their parent planet, unlike regular sat ...

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 nine and a half times that of Earth. It has only one-eighth the average density of Earth; ...

. It was discovered by Holman and colleagues in 2000, and given the temporary designation S/2000 S 11.Gladman, B. J.; Nicholson, P. D.; Burns, J. A.; Kavelaars, J. J.; Marsden, B. G.; Holman, M. J.; Grav, T.; Hergenrother, C. W.; Petit, J.-M.; Jacobson, R. A.; and Gray, W. J.
''Discovery of 12 satellites of Saturn exhibiting orbital clustering''
Nature, 412 (July 12, 2001), pp. 163–166 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 35° and 40°, and their eccentricities around 0.53. ...

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 identifies him with the Roman god

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin atmos ...

(an ''

interpretatio romana ''Interpretatio graeca'' (Latin, "Greek translation") or "interpretation by means of Greek odels is a discourse used to interpret or attempt to understand the mythology and religion of other cultures; a comparative methodology using ancient Gr ...

'').Maier, Bernhard, ''Dictionary of Celtic religion and culture'' (1997), p. 11.

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 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

Measurements from

NEOWISE Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE, observatory code C51, Explorer 92 and SMEX-6) is a NASA infrared astronomy space telescope in the Explorers Program. It was launched in December 2009, and placed in hibernation mode in February 20 ...

constrain the

albedo Albedo (; ) is the measure of the diffuse reflection of solar radiation out of the total solar radiation and measured on a scale from 0, corresponding to a black body that absorbs all incident radiation, to 1, corresponding to a body that refl ...

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 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 perod of , and while one light curve measured by ''

Cassini–Huygens ''Cassini–Huygens'' ( ), commonly called ''Cassini'', was a 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, including its ri ...

'' found two minima with a moderate perturbation in one of them, a different angle showed a sharp minimum and two shallower ones.

References

*Ephemeri
from IAU-MPC NSES

External links

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