Actaea (moon)

Actaea
Salacia and its moon Actaea, imaged by the Keck telescope on 3 August 2010. Actaea is the fainter object to the left of Salacia.
Discovery
Discovered byKeith S. Noll, Harold F. Levison, Denise C. Stephen, William M. Grundy
Discovery date21 July 2006
Designations
Designation
Salacia I
Pronunciation/ækˈtə/
S/2006 (120347) 1
AdjectivesActaean /ækˈtən/
Orbital characteristics[1]
5724±27 km
Eccentricity0.0098±0.0038
5.493882±0.000023 days
Inclination23.59±0.36°
45.2±1.6°
134±23°
Satellite ofSalacia
Physical characteristics
Dimensions284±10 km[1]
Mass≈ 20×1018 kg
Albedo≈ 0.035 +0.010/−0.007[citation needed]
Spectral type
V–I = 0.89±0.02 (Actaea)
1.9 mag[citation needed]

Actaea, officially (120347) Salacia I Actaea, is a natural satellite of the classical Kuiper belt object 120347 Salacia. Its diameter is estimated to be approximately 300 km (190 mi), which is approximately one-third the diameter of Salacia; thus, Salacia and Actaea are viewed by William Grundy et al. to be a binary system. Assuming that the following size estimates are correct, Actaea is about the sixth-biggest known moon of a trans-Neptunian object, after Charon (1212 km), Dysnomia (700 km),[2] Vanth (443 km),[3] Ilmarë (326 km),[4] and Hiʻiaka (320 km), but possibly also Hiisi (250 km).

  1. ^ a b Grundy, W. M.; Noll, K. S.; Roe, H. G.; Buie, M. W.; Porter, S. B.; Parker, A. H.; Nesvorný, D.; Benecchi, S. D.; Stephens, D. C.; Trujillo, C. A. (2019). "Mutual Orbit Orientations of Transneptunian Binaries" (PDF). Icarus. 334: 62–78. Bibcode:2019Icar..334...62G. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2019.03.035. ISSN 0019-1035. S2CID 133585837. Retrieved 2019-10-26.
  2. ^ Brown, Michael E.; Butler, Bryan J. (2018-09-18). "Medium-sized satellites of large Kuiper belt objects". The Astronomical Journal. 156 (4): 164. arXiv:1801.07221. Bibcode:2018AJ....156..164B. doi:10.3847/1538-3881/aad9f2. S2CID 119343798.
  3. ^ Sickafoose, A. A.; Bosh, A. S.; Levine, S. E.; Zuluaga, C. A.; Genade, A.; Schindler, K.; Lister, T. A.; Person, M. J. (2019-02-01). "A stellar occultation by Vanth, a satellite of (90482) Orcus". Icarus. 319: 657–668. arXiv:1810.08977. Bibcode:2019Icar..319..657S. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2018.10.016. S2CID 119099266.
  4. ^ Grundy, W.M.; Porter, S.B.; Benecchi, S.D.; Roe, H.G.; Noll, K.S.; Trujillo, C.A.; Thirouin, A.; Stansberry, J.A.; Barker, E.; Levison, H.F. (September 2015). "The mutual orbit, mass, and density of the large transneptunian binary system Varda and Ilmarë". Icarus. 257: 130–138. arXiv:1505.00510. Bibcode:2015Icar..257..130G. doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2015.04.036. S2CID 44546400.