Discovery of Fornjot

Fornjot is a small irregular moon of Saturn, about six kilometres across, that orbits the planet at a great distance in a tilted, elongated path, in the direction opposite to Saturn's rotation. It was found in images taken in late 2004 by a team led by Scott Sheppard working with telescopes on Mauna Kea in Hawaii, and its discovery was announced in 2005. Fornjot is one of the Norse group of moons, probably fragments of a larger captured body. It is named after Fornjot, an ancient giant in Norse mythology who was regarded as the father of the sea giant Aegir and of Kari, the personification of the wind, both of whom have moons of Saturn named after them.

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