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Uranus' natural satellites

 

Uranus' natural satellites

Uranus has 27 known moons. The first two moons (Titania and Oberon) were discovered by William Herschel on March 13, 1787. Two more moons (Ariel and Umbriel) were discovered by William Lassell in 1851. In 1852, Herschel's son John Herschel gave the four then-known moons their names. In 1948 Gerard Kuiper discovered the moon Miranda.

The flyby of the Voyager 2 space probe in January 1986 led to the discovery of a further 10 moons, and another satellite S/1986 U 10 was later found after studying old Voyager photographs. Eleven additional moons have since been identified using telescopes.

All moons of Uranus are named after characters from the works of Shakespeare and Alexander Pope.

The natural satellites

Sources: NASA/NSSDC and University of Hawaii. These sources give no information on the masses for the small satellites; some data have changed greatly so it is unlikely that these old values are correct. Pronunciations are from the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Naming notes


Some asteroids share the same names as moons of Uranus: 171 Ophelia, 218 Bianca, 593 Titania, 666 Desdemona and 2758 Cordelia.

See also

  • Jupiter's natural satellites
  • Saturn's natural satellites
  • Neptune's natural satellites



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