Actaea (moon)
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 by | Keith S. Noll, Harold F. Levison, Denise C. Stephen, William M. Grundy |
| Discovery date | 21 July 2006 |
| Designations | |
Designation | Salacia I |
| Pronunciation | /ækˈtiːə/ |
| S/2006 (120347) 1 | |
| Adjectives | Actaean /ækˈtiːən/ |
| Orbital characteristics | |
| 5700+30 −29 km | |
| Eccentricity | 0.008±0.003 |
| 5.49389±0.00001 days | |
| Inclination | 17.2±0.5° |
| 108.9±1.6° | |
| 41+33 −22° | |
| Satellite of | Salacia |
| Physical characteristics | |
| 393±33 km | |
| Mass | ≈ 20×1018 kg |
Mean density | ~0.63 g/cm3 (calculated) |
| 5.49389±0.00001 d (synchronous) | |
| Albedo | 0.021±0.004 |
Spectral type | V–I = 0.89±0.02 |
| 6.850±0.053 | |
Actaea, formal designation (120347) Salacia I, is the only known moon of the classical Kuiper belt object 120347 Salacia. Its diameter is estimated to be 393 km (244 mi), which is approximately one-half 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 fifth-biggest known moon of a trans-Neptunian object, after Charon (1212 km), Dysnomia (615 km), Vanth (443 km), and Ilmarë (403 km).