Ijiraq, or Saturn XXII (22), is a small prograde

irregular satellite In astronomy, an irregular moon, irregular satellite or irregular natural satellite is a natural satellite following a distant, inclined, and often eccentric and retrograde orbit. They have been captured by their parent planet, unlike regular s ...

of Saturn. It was discovered by the team of

Brett Gladman Brett James Gladman (born April 19, 1966) is a Canadian astronomer and a full professor at the University of British Columbia's Department of Physics and Astronomy in Vancouver, British Columbia. He holds the Canada Research Chair in planetary a ...

, John J. Kavelaars, ''et al.'' in 2000, and given the temporary designation .MPEC 2000-Y14: ''S/2000 S 3, S/2000 S 4, S/2000 S 5, S/2000 S 6, S/2000 S 10''
December 19, 2000 (discovery and ephemeris) It was named in 2003 after the ijiraq, a creature in

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, parts of Siberia and Greenland. Their religion shares many similarities with some Al ...

.IAUC 8177: ''Satellites of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus''
August 8, 2003 (naming the moon)

Orbit

Ijiraq orbits Saturn at an average distance of 11.1 million km in 451 days on an orbit very similar to

Kiviuq Kiviuq (also spelled "Qiviuq", "Kiviok" and other variants) is a legendary hero of the epic stories of the Inuit of the Arctic regions of northern Canada, Alaska and Greenland. Kiviuq is an eternal Inuit wanderer. Spirits, giants, cannibals, bea ...

's. Ijiraq is believed to be in Kozai resonance: its orbit is cyclically reducing the inclination while increasing the eccentricity and vice versa. The orbital

argument of pericenter The argument of periapsis (also called argument of perifocus or argument of pericenter), symbolized as ''ω'', is one of the orbital elements of an orbiting body. Parametrically, ''ω'' is the angle from the body's ascending node to its periapsi ...

oscillates around 90° with an amplitude of 60°. Like Kiviuq and Thrymr, Ijiraq's orbital elements overlap strongly with Phoebe's, and it is likely to collide with Phoebe in the future.

Physical characteristics

While Ijiraq is a member of the Inuit group of irregular satellites, recent observations revealed that it is distinctively redder than

Paaliaq Paaliaq is a prograde irregular satellite of Saturn. It was discovered by J. J. Kavelaars, Brett J. Gladman, Jean-Marc Petit, Hans Scholl, Matthew J. Holman, Brian G. Marsden, Philip D. Nicholson and Joseph A. Burns in early October 2000, and gi ...

, Siarnaq and Kiviuq. Its spectral slope (a measure of body

reflectance The reflectance of the surface of a material is its effectiveness in reflecting radiant energy. It is the fraction of incident electromagnetic power that is reflected at the boundary. Reflectance is a component of the response of the electronic ...

in function of the

wavelength In physics, the wavelength is the spatial period of a periodic wave—the distance over which the wave's shape repeats. It is the distance between consecutive corresponding points of the same phase on the wave, such as two adjacent crests, t ...

) is twice as steep as that of other Inuit-group satellites (20% per 100 nm), typical for red

trans-Neptunian object A trans-Neptunian object (TNO), also written transneptunian object, is any minor planet in the Solar System that orbits the Sun at a greater average distance than Neptune, which has a semi-major axis of 30.1 astronomical units (au). Typically ...

s like Sedna but unknown for

s. In addition, the Ijiraupian (Ijiraqan)The genitive form of ''Ijiraq'' is ''Ijiraup''. Thus the adjectival form could be

absolutive In grammar, the absolutive case (abbreviated ) is the case of nouns in ergative–absolutive languages that would generally be the subjects of intransitive verbs or the objects of transitive verbs in the translational equivalents of nominative� ...

''Ijiraqian'' or genitive ''Ijiraupian'', parallel to nominative ''Venusian'' and genitive ''Venerian'' for Venus. Se
Inuktitut morphology
/ref> spectrum lacks the weak absorption near 0.7 μm, attributed to a possible water hydration, found in the other three.

Name

Ijiraq was named in 2003 after the '' ijiraq'', a creature of

. Kavelaars, an astronomer at

McMaster University McMaster University (McMaster or Mac) is a public research university in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The main McMaster campus is on of land near the residential neighbourhoods of Ainslie Wood and Westdale, adjacent to the Royal Botanical Ga ...

, suggested this name to help astronomical nomenclature to get out of its Greco-Romano-

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...

rut. He spent several months trying to find names that were both multi-cultural and

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

, consulting

Amerindian The Indigenous peoples of the Americas are the inhabitants of the Americas before the arrival of the European settlers in the 15th century, and the ethnic groups who now identify themselves with those peoples. Many Indigenous peoples of the A ...

scholars without finding a name that seemed appropriate. In March 2001, he was reading an Inuit tale to his children and had a revelation. The ''ijiraq'' plays at

hide-and-seek Hide-and-seek (sometimes known as hide-and-go-seek) is a popular children's game in which at least two players (usually at least three) conceal themselves in a set environment, to be found by one or more seekers. The game is played by one chos ...

, which is what these small moons of Saturn do: they are hard to find, and cold like the Canadian arctic (the team of discoverers includes Canadians,

Norwegians Norwegians ( no, nordmenn) are a North Germanic ethnic group and nation native to Norway, where they form the vast majority of the population. They share a common culture and speak the Norwegian language. Norwegians are descended from the N ...

and Icelanders—nordicity is their common trait). Kavelaars contacted the author of the tale, Michael Kusugak, to get his assent, and the latter also suggested the names for

and 90377 Sedna.

References

External links

Ephemeris from IAU-MPC NSES

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ijiraq (Moon) Inuit group Moons of Saturn Irregular satellites Discoveries by Brett J. Gladman Astronomical objects discovered in 2000 Moons with a prograde orbit