From the school course of astronomy, perhaps, every literate person approximately represents the structure of the solar system. It consists of four planets corresponding to the terrestrial type, as many gas giants and an asteroid belt - a kind of border covering the entire system. Two planets - Saturn and Uranus - have rings. And the latter can be considered one of the most interesting components of the ring satellite Miranda. Such an unusual cosmic body is no longer in our native system.
The largest moons of Uranus: Maranda and others
Currently, the planet holds almost thirty moons. Astronomers suspect that in fact there are more, but so far no new discoveries have been made in this area.
Uranus has the five largest satellites. The two largest were discovered by the scientist Herschel, together with the discovery of the planet itself, and this happened in 1851. The first was called Oberon. Its orbit is the most distant from the mother planet, and it itself has a diameter of 1530 km. A distinctive feature is the abundance of craters, the largest of which exceeds 200 m across. The second satellite discovered by the astronomer was named Titania. It is even larger - 1, 600 km, but carries fewer craters, replaced in its case by a grid of valleys and canyons.
Two other large satellites were “found” by the astronomer Lassel in 1851. One of them - Umbriel - is the darkest of the entire satellite ring, the second - Ariel - the lightest. According to assumptions, he also has the youngest age among all the moons.
And the last - Miranda, the satellite discovered later than all, in 1948, by Gerard Kuiper. Thanks to the Voyager 2 research probe and the data obtained from it in 1986, this moon has been better studied than the others that make up the ring around Uranus.
A few words about the names of the moons
Not everyone knows what Miranda is. The satellite, meanwhile, is named for the Shakespearean heroine from the play The Tempest. Interestingly, all the other moons are also called lovers of the English bard. For example, Titania and Oberon are characters of the piece “A Midsummer Night's Dream”.
The best
The Miranda satellite can be called unique in several directions at once.
- This is the moon closest to Uranus.
- Of all the significant satellites of significant size, Miranda is the smallest - in diameter it reaches only 480 km.
- This moon has the largest angle of inclination of the orbit with respect to the equator.
- According to astronomers, Miranda has changed dramatically at least five times in its history. And this does not mean that new craters appeared or hills collapsed, its outlines each time acquired new features by at least 70 percent.
- Miranda is a companion regularly experiencing a change of seasons. True, the period during which the "weather" does not change is as much as 42 years.
All these features give scientists hope for unexpected and inspiring discoveries in the future.
Ugly appearance
But most of all, Miranda, the companion of Uranus, strikes with its uneven surface. In scientific circles, the moon is compared with the monster of Frankenstein. Astronomers claim that every single geological form that was found on the solid cosmic bodies of the solar system was discovered on the satellite. An object of such a small size, according to scientists, should have a more uniform shape. The chaotic contours that the Miranda satellite has are confusing the researchers. The highest peak of this moon reaches 15 kilometers. Curious people calculated that, taking into account the force of attraction on Miranda, it would have to fall from its top for almost a quarter of an hour.
Thanks to the Voyager, as many as three highest crowns were discovered on the surface of the satellite.
- Arden - located in the hemisphere, called the lead.
- Elsinore, who grew up in the hemisphere, recognized as a follower.
- Inverness, located in the southern hemisphere.
But even without these mountain peaks, the surface is dotted with significant high-altitude irregularities. The vast plains are torn apart by deep faults. In general, the satellite resembles a pile of giant debris collected in a general pile.
Physical and geological characteristics
For now, astronomers do not have exact information about what the Miranda satellite consists of. Visual observations taken from the Voyager suggest that the surface of the moon consists mainly of ordinary ice, which includes a number of compounds of carbonates with silicates. Apparently, a small percentage of ammonia is also present. In the years when “winter” reigns on a part of the moon’s surface, the temperature in this area drops to 213 below zero - very little remains until the space cold.
