Paaliaq 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 ...

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 J. J. Kavelaars, Brett J. Gladman, Jean-Marc Petit,

Hans Scholl Hans Fritz Scholl (; 22 September 1918 – 22 February 1943) was, along with Alexander Schmorell, one of the two founding members of the White Rose resistance movement in Nazi Germany. The principal author of the resistance movement's ...

, Matthew J. Holman, Brian G. Marsden, Philip D. Nicholson and

Joseph A. Burns Joseph Burns (March 22, 1941February 26, 2025) was a professor at Cornell University with a dual appointment in the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE) and the Astronomy department. His primary area of research was dynamics ...

in early October 2000, and given the temporary designation S/2000 S 2. It was named in August 2003 after a fictional shaman in the book ''The Curse of the Shaman,'' written by Michael Kusugak, who supplied Kavelaars with the names of giants from

Inuit mythology Inuit religion is the shared spiritual beliefs and practices of the Inuit, an Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous people from Alaska, northern Canada, Greenland, and parts of Siberia. Their religion shares many similarities with some A ...

that were used for other Saturnian moons. Paaliaq is thought to be about 29 kilometres in diameter, and orbits Saturn at an average distance of 15.0 million km in 687 days. It is a member of the Inuit group of irregular satellites. It is light red in color, and in the

infrared Infrared (IR; sometimes called infrared light) is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than that of visible light but shorter than microwaves. The infrared spectral band begins with the waves that are just longer than those ...

the Paaliapian (Paaliaqan) spectrum is very similar to the Inuit-group satellites Kiviuq and Siarnaq, supporting the thesis of a possible common origin of the Inuit group in the break-up of a larger body. Its

light curve In astronomy, a light curve is a graph (discrete mathematics), graph of the Radiance, light intensity of a celestial object or region as a function of time, typically with the magnitude (astronomy), magnitude of light received on the ''y''-axis ...

has an unusual pattern of four minima, suggesting that it has a very peculiar shape. Paaliaq-CFHT

Notes

References

External links

*Ephemeri
IAU-MPC NSES
{{DEFAULTSORT:Paaliaq (Moon) Inuit group Moons of Saturn Irregular satellites Discoveries by Brett J. Gladman Astronomical objects discovered in 2000 Moons with a prograde orbit