PERDITA (MOON)

'Perdita' ''(pər'-di-tə,'' ) is an inner satellite of Uranus. Perdita's discovery was complicated. The first photographs of Perdita were taken by the ''Voyager 2'' spacecraft in 1986, but it was not recognized from the photographs for more than a decade. In 1999, the moon was noticed by Erich Karkoschka and reported.^[3] But because no further pictures could be taken to confirm its existence, it was officially demoted in 2001.^[4] However, in 2003, pictures taken by the Hubble Space Telescope managed to pick up an object where Perdita was supposed to be, finally confirming its existence.^[5][6]
Following its discovery in 1999, Perdita was given the temporary designation of 'S/1986 U 10'. It was named after the daughter of Leontes and Hermione in William Shakespeare's play ''The Winter's Tale''. The moon is also designated 'Uranus XXV'.^[7]
The moon orbits between Belinda and Puck. The abovementioned Hubble measurements prove that Perdita does not follow a direct Keplerian motion around Uranus. Instead, it is clearly caught in a 43:44 orbital resonance with the nearby moon Belinda. It is also close to an 8:7 resonance with Rosalind.
Perdita belongs to Portia Group of satellites, which also includes Bianca, Cressida, Desdemona, Portia, Juliet, Cupid, Rosalind and Belinda. These satellites have similar orbits and photometric properties. Unfortunately, other than its orbit, radius of 15 km and geometric albedo of 0.08 virtually nothing is known about it.

Contents

References

External links

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. 7171
4. Moon of Uranus is demoted
5. The Second Ring-Moon System of Uranus: Discovery and Dynamics, , Mark R., Showalter, Science Express,
6. IAU Circular No. 8194
7. Planet and Satellite Names and Discoverers

External links

Perdita Profile by NASA's Solar System Exploration

This article provided by Wikipedia. To edit the contents of this article, click here for original source.