Nordic Group (Astronomy)

The Nordic Group is a large group of retrograde irregular moons of the planet Saturn that move in similar orbits.

The irregular moons of Saturn.

The major semi-axes of their orbits run between 12.9 and 25.1 million km. The orbits have eccentricities between 0.130 and 0.580 and inclinations (orbital inclinations) between 145.2 ° and 177.5 °, whereby the moons are retrograde, i.e. H. against the direction of rotation of the planet, move around Saturn.

In contrast to the moons of the Inuit group and the Gallic group , the orbital elements of this group are very different. It is likely that this group consists of several subgroups.

The 29 members of the group are (with increasing distance from Saturn):

• Phoebe
• Skathi (Skathi subgroup)
• S / 2007 S 2
• Skoll (Skathi subgroup)
• Greip
• Hyrrokkin (Skathi subgroup)
• S / 2004 S 13
• S / 2004 S 17
• Jarnsaxa
• Mundilfari
• S / 2006 S 1 (Skathi subgroup)
• Narvi (Narvi subgroup)
• Bergelmir (Skathi subgroup)
• Suttungr
• S / 2004 S 12
• S / 2004 S 7
• Hati
• Bestla (Narvi subgroup)
• Farbauti (Skathi subgroup)
• Thrymr
• S / 2007 S 3
• Aegir
• S / 2006 S 3 (Skathi subgroup)
• Kari (Skathi subgroup)
• Fenrir
• Surtur
• Ymir
• Lodge
• Fornjot

The moons of the Nordic group are named by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) - with the exception of Phoebe - after figures (especially giants) from Nordic mythology .