Gunnlod (Saturn LXII), provisionally known as S/2004 S 32, is a

natural satellite A natural satellite is, in the most common usage, an astronomical body that orbits a planet, dwarf planet, or small Solar System body (or sometimes another natural satellite). Natural satellites are colloquially referred to as moons, a deriv ...

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 ...

. Its discovery was announced by Scott S. Sheppard, David C. Jewitt, and

Jan Kleyna Jan T. Kleyna is a postdoctoral astronomy researcher at the University of Hawaiʻi The University of Hawaiʻi System is a public college and university system in Hawaii. The system confers associate, bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degre ...

on October 8, 2019 from observations taken between December 12, 2004 and January 19, 2007. It was given its permanent designation in August 2021. On 24 August 2022, it was officially named after Gunnlǫð, a

jötunn A (also jotun; plural ; in the normalised scholarly spelling of Old Norse, ; or, in Old English, , plural ) is a type of being in Germanic mythology. In Norse mythology, are often contrasted with gods (the Æsir and Vanir) and with other no ...

from

Norse mythology Norse, Nordic, or Scandinavian mythology, is the body of myths belonging to the North Germanic peoples, stemming from Old Norse religion and continuing after the Christianization of Scandinavia as the Nordic folklore of the modern period. The ...

. She is the daughter of

Suttungr In Norse mythology, Suttungr ( ; Old Norse: ) was a ''jötunn'' and the son of Gilling. Mythology Suttungr searched for his parents and threatened the dwarven brothers Fjalar and Galar who had killed them, tying them and some other dwarves w ...

and guarded the

mead of poetry In Norse mythology, the Poetic Mead or Mead of Poetry, also known as Mead of Suttungr, is a mythical beverage that whoever "drinks becomes a skald or scholar" able to recite any information and solve any question. This myth was reported by Snorri ...

for him. But

Odin Odin (; from ) is a widely revered god in Norse mythology and Germanic paganism. Most surviving information on Odin comes from Norse mythology, but he figures prominently in the recorded history of Northern Europe. This includes the Roman Em ...

in the form of a snake gained access to the chamber in

Hnitbjorg In Norse mythology, Hnitbjörg is the mountain abode of the giant Suttungr, where he placed the mead of poetry for safekeeping under the guardianship of his daughter Gunnlöð. Odin, with the help of Suttungr's brother Baugi, drilled a hole into ...

where the mead was kept, seduced Gunnlǫð, and slept with her for three nights. In return Gunnlǫð allowed Odin three drinks of the mead, and he then immediately flew out of the cavern in the form of an eagle. Gunnlod is about 4 kilometres in diameter, and orbits Saturn at an average distance of 21.214 Gm in 1153.96 days, at an inclination of 159° to the ecliptic, in a retrograde direction and with an eccentricity of 0.251.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gunnlod (Moon) Norse group Irregular satellites Moons of Saturn Discoveries by Scott S. Sheppard Astronomical objects discovered in 2019 Moons with a retrograde orbit