Jarnsaxa, Greip, and Tarqeq
Published on Oct 17, 2007 at 10:51 am.
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Filed under extraterrestrial moons.
Wow. My spell checker had a field day on that title! No, those are not random keys that I pressed. Those are the names that have now been assigned to three of Saturn’s most recently discovered moons.
Solar System bodies are not just given random names. There are rules for naming things. Generally, the person or group that discovers a body gets to name it, but they have to follow procedure. There are naming conventions that have to be followed. For example, the moons of Mars are named for the horses that drew Mars’ chariot. When Saturn was discovered, its first moon was named Titan, since in mythology the Saturn was one of the Titans. So, by consensus it was determined that Saturn’s moons would be named after titans. This worked fine until so many moons had been found that mythology ran out of titans! So, the convention was expanded to include other giants. But, the naming of things was generally by agreement, not by a hard and fast rule until the Twentieth Century. If someone named a body something that no one else liked, they simply didn’t use that name. But, in the early part of the Twentieth Century, the International Astronomical Union established a working group to vet names. So, when a moon is now discovered, the discoverers submit their proposed name to the appropriate task group. The members of that group then decide to either approve or disapprove of the suggested name. If approved, then the moon officially gets that name. The USGS maintains a gazetteer of planetary nomenclature.
Most of the Saturnian moons are named for titans and other giants from the Greco-Roman mythology. However, certain groups of moons get names from other mythologies. Most of Saturn’s moons move prograde (eastward around Saturn), but a few orbit backwards (retrograde). These retrograde moons are named after Norse giants, except for Phoebe, which was named prior to the decision to use Norse giants for those moons. Those moons with orbital inclinations of about 36° are named after Gallic giants, and those with inclinations of about 48° are named for Inuit giants or spirits (one of these new satellites uses an Inuit name and the other two use Norse names).
All three of the new moons were found by Scott Sheppard, David Jewitt, and Jan Kleyna while using telescopes at Mauna Kea in Hawaii.
The 50th Saturnian moon (Saturn L), discovered January 5, 2006, was originally given the provisional designation S/2006 S6. It is now named Jarnsaxa after the Norse giantess who was Thor’s lover. The 51st Saturnian moon (Saturn LI), also discovered January 5, 2006, was given the designation of S/2006 S4, and is now called Greip, another Norse giantess. Finally, the 52nd Saturnian moon (Saturn LII), discovered January 16, 2007, and originally designated S/2007 S1, now has the name Tarqeq, the Inuit Moon spirit.
-Astroprof
