Discovery of Jarnsaxa

Jarnsaxa is a small irregular moon of Saturn, about six kilometres across, that follows a distant, tilted and elongated orbit in the direction opposite to Saturn's rotation. It was discovered in early 2006 by a team led by Scott Sheppard that used large telescopes in Hawaii to search for faint moons of the giant planets. It belongs to the Norse group, which are probably fragments of a larger body that was captured by Saturn. The moon is named after Jarnsaxa, a giantess in Norse mythology who was a lover of the god Thor and the mother of his son Magni.

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