Kiviuq is about 17 km in diameter, and orbits Saturn at an average distance of 11.3 million kilometers in 449 days. It is a member of the
Inuit group of irregular satellites. It is light red, and the Kiviupian (Kiviuqan)[a]infrared spectrum is very similar to the Inuit-group satellites
Siarnaq and
Paaliaq, supporting the thesis of a possible common origin of the Inuit group in the break-up of a larger body.[7][13]
Kiviuq is believed to be in
Kozai resonance, cyclically reducing its
orbital inclination while increasing the
eccentricity and vice versa.[14] Its current orbital elements overlap strongly with Phoebe's orbit, and the moons will likely eventually collide with each other.[8]
The
light curveamplitude of Kiviuq is large, varying in brightness by over 2
magnitudes. The large amplitude of Kiviuq suggests that it has an elongated shape, and may be a possible
contact binary.[4]
Exploration
On 30 August 2010, the
ISS camera of the
Cassini–Huygens spacecraft took light-curve data from a distance of 9.3 million km. With these data, the rotation period was measured to 21 hours and 49 minutes.[5]
Notes
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abThe genitive form of Kiviuq is Kiviup. Thus the adjectival form could be absolutive Kiviuqian or genitive Kiviupian, parallel to nominative Venusian and genitive Venerian for
Venus. See
Inuktitut morphology