Provisional and Final Names of Saturn's Moons
When a new moon is discovered, it gets a provisional name: S/YYYY PN, where the "S" stands for "satellite", YYYY is the year, P is the planet's first letter (no idea what they'll do for Mercury should it actually have a moon, so don't ask), and N tells you which moon it is discovered that year. So, for example, S/2005 S1 is the first moon of Saturn discovered in 2005. (This is also Daphnis.)
Later, after some discussion of possible names and verification that the object is real and a moon, a "real" name is chosen. that's the name what we ever after call the body, but there are quite often a slew of papers written before the moon is named. It's very annoying (and not a little frustrating) to read such papers much later when the provisional names are almost forgotten. Hence this page: I've arranged the moons of Saturn in order by the provisional name to make it easy to come up with the real name that you know and love today. This is especially useful for the moons discovered by Voyager, but it'll probably start to be useful for the current torrent of discoveries soon enough. Enjoy!
See a mistake? Email me and I'll try to fix it pronto.
| Provisional Name | IAU Accepted Name |
|---|---|
| 1980 | |
| S/1980 S1 | Janus |
| S/1980 S3 | Epimetheus |
| S/1980 S6 | Helene |
| S/1980 S13 | Telesto |
| S/1980 S25 | Calypso |
| S/1980 S26 | Pandora |
| S/1980 S27 | Prometheus |
| S/1980 S28 | Atlas |
| 1981 | |
| S/1981 S13 | Pan |
| 2000 | |
| S/2000 S1 | Ymir |
| S/2000 S2 | Paaliaq |
| S/2000 S3 | Siarnaq |
| S/2000 S4 | Tarvos |
| S/2000 S5 | Kiviuq |
| S/2000 S6 | Ijiraq |
| S/2000 S7 | Thrymr |
| S/2000 S8 | Skathi |
| S/2000 S9 | Mundilfari |
| S/2000 S10 | Erriapo |
| S/2000 S11 | Albiorix |
| S/2000 S12 | Suttungr |
| 2003 | |
| S/2003 S1 | Narvi |
| 2004 | |
| S/2004 S1 | Methone |
| S/2004 S2 | Pallene |
| S/2004 S5 | Polydeuces |
| S/2004 S7 | ? |
| S/2004 S8 | Fornjot |
| S/2004 S9 | Farbauti |
| S/2004 S10 | Aegir |
| S/2004 S11 | Bebhionn |
| S/2004 S12 | ? |
| S/2004 S13 | ? |
| S/2004 S14 | Hati |
| S/2004 S15 | Bergelmir |
| S/2004 S16 | Fenrir |
| S/2004 S17 | ? |
| S/2004 S18 | Bestla |
| S/2004 S19 | Hyrrokkin |
| 2005 | |
| S/2005 S1 | Daphnis |
| 2006 | |
| S/2006 S1 | ? |
| S/2006 S2 | Kari |
| S/2006 S3 | ? |
| S/2006 S4 | Greip |
| S/2006 S5 | Loge |
| S/2006 S6 | Jarnsaxa |
| S/2006 S7 | Surtur |
| S/2006 S8 | Skoll |
| 2007 | |
| S/2007 S1 | Tarqeq |
| S/2007 S2 | ? |
| S/2007 S3 | ? |
| S/2007 S4 | Anthe |
A "?" in the name column indicates that the satellite is (as far as I know) unnamed at present.
Weiss John