strangeparticles: Uranus is the seventh planet of our solar system. It has twenty seven moons.
strangeparticles:Uranus is the seventh planet of our solar system. It has twenty seven moons. The first four, discovered between 1787 and 1851, were named after magical spirits in English literature: the fairies Oberon and Titania from William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and the sylphs Ariel and Umbriel from Alexander Pope’s The Rape of the Lock. The reasoning was presumably that Uranus, as god of the sky and air, would be attended by spirits of the air.In 1949, the fifth moon, Miranda, was named by its discoverer Gerard Kuiper after a character in Shakespeare’s The Tempest. The current practice of the International Astronomical Union is to name moons after characters from Shakespeare’s plays and The Rape of the Lock (although for now only Ariel, Umbriel, and Belinda have been taken from that play; all the rest are from Shakespeare). The names of the moons discovered so far are:Titania | discovered 1787 | named after The Queen of the Fairies in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’Oberon | 1787 | A Midsummer Night’s DreamAriel | 1851 | The Rape of the LockUmbriel | 1851 | The Rape of the LockMiranda | 1948 | The TempestPuck | 1985 | A Midsummer Night’s DreamCordelia | 1986 | King LearOphelia | 1986 | HamletBianca | 1986 | The Taming of the ShrewCressinda | 1986 | Troilus and CressindaDesdemona | 1986 | OthelloJuliet | 1986 | Romeo and JulietPortia | 1986 | The Merchant of VeniceRosalind | 1986 | As You Like ItBelinda | 1986 | The Rape of the LockCaliban | 1997 | The TempestSycorax | 1997 | The TempestPerdita | 1999 | The Winter’s TaleStephano | 1999 | The TempestProspero | 1999 | The TempestSetebos | 1999 | The TempestTrinculo | 2001 | The TempestCupid | 2003 | Timon of AthensMab | 2003 | Romeo and JulietFrancisco | 2003 | The TempestMargaret | 2003 | Much Ado About NothingFerdinand | 2003 | The TempestSome more fun facts:Puck is approximately spherical in shape, and has a dark, heavily cratered surface, which shows spectral signs of water ice.Cordelia is very close to a orbital resonance with Rosalind.Bianca belongs to Portia Group of satellites, which also includes Cressida, Desdemona, Juliet, Portia, Rosalind, Cupid, Belinda and Perdita. These satellites have similar orbits and photometric properties. Other than its orbit, radius, and geometric albedo virtually nothing is known about it.The orbit of Ophelia is within the synchronous orbit radius of Uranus, and therefore the moon is slowly decaying due to tidal forces.Cressida may collide with Desdemona within the next 100 million years.Belinda is an elongated object and its surface is grey in color.The orbital parameters of Stephano suggest that it may belong to the same dynamic cluster as Caliban, suggesting common origin.The orbital parameters suggest that Prospero may belong to the same dynamic cluster as Sycorax and Setebos, suggesting common origin. However, this suggestion does not appear to be supported by the observed colours. The satellite appears neutral in visible light, similar to Setebos but different from Sycorax.Mab is heavily perturbed. The actual source for perturbation is still unclear, but is presumed to be one or more of the nearby orbiting moons.The orbit of Cupid differs only by a few hundreds km from the orbit of Belinda. Unlike Mab and Perdita, it does not seem to be perturbed.(x) -- source link
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