Universe & space

Discovery of Mundilfari

23 September 2000

Mundilfari is a small irregular moon of Saturn, only a few kilometres across, that orbits the planet at a considerable distance. It was discovered in 2000 by a team of astronomers led by Brett Gladman, who found several distant satellites of Saturn using large telescopes. The moon is a member of the Norse group, a collection of irregular satellites that were probably captured by Saturn and may be the debris of a larger body that broke apart. It was named after Mundilfari, a figure in Norse mythology who was the father of the personified Sun and Moon. It was one of the several moons found in the same survey on that date.

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