Discovered 13 December 2004 | Orbits Saturn | |
Similar Saturn moons, Other celestial objects | ||
Bestla (/ˈbɛstlə/ BEST-lə) or Saturn XXXIX (provisional designation S/2004 S 18) is a retrograde irregular moon of Saturn. Its discovery was announced by Scott S. Sheppard, David C. Jewitt, Jan Kleyna, and Brian G. Marsden on 4 May 2005, from observations taken between 13 December 2004 and 5 March 2005.
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Description
Bestla is about 7 kilometres in diameter, and orbits Saturn at an average distance of 20,192,000 km in 1088 days, at an inclination of 147° to the ecliptic (151° to Saturn's equator), in a retrograde direction and with an eccentricity of 0.5145. Early observations from 2005 suggested that Bestla had a very high eccentricity of 0.77. Like many of the outer irregular moons of the giant planets, Bestla's eccentricity may vary as a result of the Kozai mechanism.
Name
This moon was named in April 2007 after Bestla, a frost giantess from Norse mythology, who is a mother of Odin.