BELINDA (MOON)

'Belinda' ''(bə-lin'-də,'' ) is an inner satellite of Uranus. Belinda was discovered from the images taken by ''Voyager 2'' on 1986-01-13, and was given the temporary designation 'S/1986 U 5'.^[3] It is named after the heroine of Alexander Pope's ''The Rape of the Lock''. It is also designated 'Uranus XIV'.^[4]
Belinda belongs to Portia Group of satellites, which also includes Bianca, Cressida, Desdemona, Portia, Juliet, Cupid, Rosalind and Perdita. These satellites have similar orbits and photometric properties. Unfortunately, other than its orbit, radius of 45 km and geometric albedo of 0.08 virtually nothing is known about it.
At the Voyager 2 images Belinda appears as an elongated object, the major axis pointing towards Uranus. The ratio of axises of the Belinda's prolate spheroid is 0.5 ± 0.1, which is rather an extreme value. Its surface is grey in color.

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References

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References

1. Voyager's Eleventh Discovery of a Satellite of Uranus and Photometry and the First Size Measurements of Nine Satellites, , Erich, Karkoschka, Icarus, 2001
2. Comprehensive Photometry of the Rings and 16 Satellites of Uranus with the Hubble Space Telescope, , Erich, Karkoschka, Icarus, 2001
3. IAU Circular No. 4164
4. Planet and Satellite Names and Discoverers

External links

Belinda Profile by NASA's Solar System Exploration