Bestla has a mean radius of 2.2 miles (3.5 km), assuming an albedo (a measure of how reflective the surface is) of 0.04.

Bestla is about 7 kilometres in diameter, and orbits Saturn at an average distance of 20,192,000 km in 1088 days, at an inclination of 147° to the ecliptic, in a retrograde direction and with an eccentricity of 0.5145. [8], Since Odin is descended from the jötnar on his mother's side, the slaying of Ymir by him and his brothers could be seen as an intra-familial killing and, according to scholar John Lindow, "the slaying or denial of a maternal relation". Dragonfly is a NASA mission to deliver a rotorcraft to Saturn’s moon Titan to advance our search for the building blocks of life.

At a mean distance of 12.6 million miles (20.3 million km) from Saturn, the moon takes about 1,087 Earth days to complete one orbit. This image of Saturn was taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope on July 4, 2020, when the planet was 839 million miles from Earth. This may help provide water for astronauts exploring the Moon during the Artemis program. Its discovery was announced by Scott S. Sheppard, David C. Jewitt, Jan Kleyna, and Brian G. Marsden on 4 May 2005, from observations taken between 13 December 2004 and 5 March 2005.

[3], In Gylfaginning (The Beguiling of Gylfi), she is portrayed as the daughter of the giant Bölþorn and as the spouse of Borr, while the enthroned figure of Hárr (High) tells Gangleri (described as king Gylfi in disguise) of the genealogy of the god Odin.[4]. [3] Early observations from 2005 suggested that Bestla had a very high eccentricity of 0.77. Guiding that effort are NASA test directors, or NTDs. [4] Like many of the outer irregular moons of the giant planets, Bestla's eccentricity may vary as a result of the Kozai mechanism. [4], Waltraud Hunke has argued that Bestla should be regarded as the bark of the world tree on which Odin was perhaps born, alluding to Hávamál (141): "then I started to grow fruitful". Here are five reasons Saturn's largest moons is so enticing. Bestla is a Moon that orbits round the planet Saturn.. Joint with Narvi, Bestla’s orbit tilt of 35° is the largest of all retrograde moons. Kristen Erickson The next full Moon will peak after midnight on Wednesday morning, Sept. 2, 2020, The Moon will appear full for about three days around this time, from Monday evening through Thursday morning. The next full Moon will be early Sunday morning, July 5, 2020. This moon was named in April 2007 after Bestla, a frost giantess from Norse mythology, who is a mother of Odin.

It orbits Saturn at an inclination of about 142 degrees and an eccentricity of about 0.5. The Voyager imaging team asked for the photo to show Earth’s vulnerability — to illustrate how small, fragile and irreplaceable it is on a cosmic scale. These "irregular" moons have retrograde orbits around Saturn—traveling around in the opposite direction from the planet's rotation. Scholars have proposed potential meanings such as 'wife', or 'bark, bast'.

It is part of the Norse group of Saturnian satellites. Besta's rotation period is 14.6238±0.0001 hours.

Amanda Barnett

[7], For the moon of Saturn named after Bestla, see, Examples include Rydberg (1886), Bellows (1923:92), and, Sacred trees and groves in Germanic paganism and mythology, Mythological Norse people, items and places, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bestla&oldid=959095964, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 27 May 2020, at 03:53.

He married that woman who was called Bestla, the daughter of the giant Bölthorn. This site is maintained by the Planetary Science Communications team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Goddard Space Flight Center for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. NASA has taken the next steps toward building Space Launch System (SLS) solid rocket boosters for as many as six additional flights. Dr. Lori Glaze Spitzer, designed to reveal the far, cold and dusty side of the universe, made discoveries its designers never even imagined, including a previously unseen ring of Saturn. If nothing indicates a family relationship between Odin and the man in the stanza (although skalds were certainly aware of Bestla as Odin’s mother), and if the mead was allegedly stolen according to other sources, it is possible that Odin obtained magical songs from his maternal uncle.

Cassini mission data provides strong evidence that the northern hemisphere of the moon has been resurfaced with ice from its interior. NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft has captured these six infrared views of the Martian moon Phobos. Like Saturn's other irregular moons, Bestla is thought to be an object that was captured by Saturn's gravity, rather than having accreted from the dusty disk that surrounded the newly formed planet as the regular moons are thought to have done. Like many of the outer irregular moons of the giant planets, Bestla's eccentricity may vary as a result of the Kozai mechanism. In Skáldskaparmál (The Language of Poetry), a poem by the skald Einarr Helgarson refers to Odin as "Bestla's son". Bestla is attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson, and in the poetry of skalds.

Bestla is the fifty-third natural satellite of Saturn. Bestla /ˈbɛstlə/ or Saturn XXXIX is a retrograde irregular moon of Saturn. Bestla was discovered on Dec. 12, 2004, one of 12 Saturnian moons found that day by Scott S. Sheppard, David C. Jewitt, and Jan T. Kleyna, using wide-field camera on the Subaru 8.3-m reflector telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii. Here are Five Reasons, 10 Things You Might Not Know About Voyager's Famous 'Pale Blue Dot' Photo, 10 Things Spitzer Taught Us About Our Solar System.
Bestla is a jötunn in Norse mythology, and the mother of the gods Odin, Vili and Vé (by way of Borr). The measured lightcurves show very large brightness variations, indicative for a very elongated object. NASA's next giant leap may be aided by tiny lunar robots that would help scout the lunar surface. Using data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft, scientists found Titan drifting away from Saturn a hundred times faster than previously understood. Planetary scientist Geronimo Villanueva created the sunset simulations while building a tool for a possible mission to Uranus.

[1] It might stem from *Bastilōn (perhaps a yew goddess, originally a 'bast-donor'), or from *Banstillōn (via an intermediate form *Böstla), related to Old Frisian bös ('marriage, union', originally 'wife'). [5], Hávamál (140) makes Bölþor(n) the grandfather of Bestla. Scholars have commented on the obscurity of the figure's name and have proposed various theories to explain the role and origin the giantess.

Odin is frequently called "Bestla's son" in both skaldic verses and the Poetic Edda. The meaning of the Old Norse name Bestla remains uncertain. Early observations from 2005 suggested that Bestla had a very high eccentricity of 0.77.

NASA's Lunar Flashlight, a briefcase-sized satellite, or CubeSat, will detect surface ice believed to be at the bottom of craters on the Moon that have never been exposed to sunlight. Phillips Davis


Bestla appears to be a member of a subgroup with Narvi. Bestla is about 7 kilometres in diameter, and orbits Saturn at an average distance of 20,192,000 km in 1088 days, at an inclination of 147° to the ecliptic (151° to Saturn's equator), in a retrograde direction and with an eccentricity of 0.5145. [4], On the basis of the Hávamál stanza handled above (wherein Odin learns nine magic songs from the unnamed brother of Bestla), some scholars have theorized that Bestla's brother may in fact be the wise being Mímir, from whose severed head the god Odin gains wisdom.

Odin is frequently called "Bestla's son" in both skaldic verses and the Poetic Edda.[1]. NASA Official: This site is maintained by the Planetary Science Communications team at, Infrared Eyes on Enceladus: Hints of Fresh Ice in Northern Hemisphere, September 2020: The Next Full Moon is the Corn, Fruit, Barley, and Hungry Ghost Moon, August 2020: The Next Full Moon is the Sturgeon Moon, Juno Takes First Images of Jovian Moon Ganymede's North Pole, NASA Announces Mini Payload Challenge Winners, Heat Shield Milestone for First Crewed Orion Mission, July 2020: The Next Full Moon is the Buck Moon, NASA Plans More SLS Rocket Boosters to Launch Artemis Moon Missions, NASA's First Planetary Defense Mission Target Gets a New Name, NASA Scientist Simulates Sunsets on Other Worlds, Rocket Motors for First Artemis Moon Mission Arrive at Spaceport, Saturn's Moon Titan Drifting Away Faster Than Previously Thought, The Next Full Moon is the Strawberry Moon, CubeSat to Shine a Laser Light on Moon's Darkest Craters, NASA Test Directors Eagerly Await Artemis Launch, Data From NASA's Cassini May Explain Saturn's Atmospheric Mystery, 10 Ways to Celebrate Pi Day with NASA on March 14, Why is NASA Sending Dragonfly to Titan? Its density has been calculated at being 2.3. Bill Dunford, Saturn's Moon Enceladus Poster - Version B. New analysis of data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft finds auroras at Saturn's poles may keep its atmosphere warm. Bestla is attested in the Poetic Edda, compiled in the 13th century from earlier traditional sources, the Prose Edda, written in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson, and in the poetry of skalds.

The rocket booster segments that will help power NASA’s first Artemis flight test mission around the Moon arrived at KSC. The Next Full Moon is the Strawberry Moon, Mead Moon, Honey Moon, Vat Purnima, Poson Poya, and the LRO Moon. Technicians recently finished applying more than 180 blocks of ablative material to the heat shield for the Orion spacecraft. [4] Odin recounts his gaining of nine magical songs from Bestla's unnamed brother.

Besta's rotation period is 14.6238±0.0001 hours.[2].

At a mean distance of 12.6 million miles (20.3 million km) from Saturn, the moon takes about 1,087 Earth days to complete one orbit. They had three sons; the first was called Odin, the second Vili, the third Vé.

Bestla, Moon of Saturn. Social Media Lead:

It orbits Saturn at an inclination of about 142 degrees and an eccentricity of about 0.5. There also will be a partial penumbral eclipse of the Moon. Before NASA’s mighty Space Launch System (SLS) rocket can blast off from the agency’s Kennedy Space Center to send the Orion spacecraft into lunar orbit, teams across the country conduct extensive tests. Bestla has a mean radius of 2.2 miles (3.5 km), assuming an albedo (a measure of how reflective the surface is) of 0.04. Bestla is a member of the Norse group of moons.

Brian Marsden computed the orbital elements. Infrared images from NASA's Juno spacecraft are providing the first glimpse of Ganymede's icy north pole.

Bestla and the other Norse moons also have eccentric orbits, meaning they are more elongated than circular. Science Writer:

The next full Moon will be midday on Monday, August 3, 2020. "Planetary Satellite Mean Orbital Parameters", "MPEC 2005-J13 : Twelve New Satellites of Saturn", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bestla_(moon)&oldid=969910298, Articles with dead external links from December 2017, Articles with permanently dead external links, Articles with dead external links from July 2017, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 28 July 2020, at 02:57. Bestla is a jötunn in Norse mythology, and the mother of the gods Odin, Vili and Vé. [2], According to Rudolf Simek, "the name appears to be very old" due to its obscurity. Site Manager:

Bestla or Saturn XXXIX is a retrograde irregular moon of Saturn. It was discovered in 2004 by Scott S. Sheppard, Brian G. Marsden, David C. Jewitt and Jan Kleyna.