Prospero (moon)

Prospero
Discovery
Discovered by Matthew J. Holman,
John J. Kavelaars,
Brett J. Gladman,
Jean-Marc Petit,
and Hans Scholl
Discovered in July 18, 1999
Orbital characteristics
Mean radius 16,243,000 km
Orbital eccentricity 0.4431
Orbital period 1977.29 d
Inclination 152° (to the ecliptic)
Is a moon of Uranus
Physical characteristics
Mean diameter ~25 km (estimate)
Surface area ~2,000 km² (estimate)
Volume ~8,000 km3 (estimate)
Mass ~2.1×1016 kg (estimate)
Mean density ~1.5 g/cm3 (estimate)
Surface gravity ~0.0063 m/s2 (estimate)
Escape velocity ~0.014 km/s (estimate)
Rotation period ?
Axial tilt ?°
Albedo 0.04 (assumed)
Surface temp.
minmeanmax
~64 K (estimate)
Atmospheric pressure 0 kPa

Prospero is a small retrograde non-spherical moon of Uranus found on 1999-07-18 by the astrophysicist Matthew Holman and his team, and given designation S/1999 U 3. Confirmed as Uranus XVIII it was named after the sorcerer Prospero in William Shakespeare's play The Tempest.

The orbital parameters suggest that it may belong, together with Sycorax and Setebos to the same dynamic cluster, suggesting common origin. However, this suggestion does not appear to be supported by the observed colours. The moon appears grey in the visible light , similar to Setebos but different from Sycorax (which is light red).

References

  1. 1 2 3 Scott S. Sheppard, David C. Jewitt, and Jan Kleyna An Ultradeep Survey for Irregular Satellites of Uranus: Limits to Completeness, The Astronomical Journal, 129 (2005), pages 518–525 . Preprint
  2. ↑ Grav, Tommy; Holman, Matthew J.; Gladman, Brett J.; Aksnes, Kaare Photometric survey of the irregular satellites,Icarus, 166,(2003), pp. 33-45. Preprint
  3. ↑ Tommy Grav, Matthew J. Holman, and Wesley C. Fraser Photometry of Irregular Satellites of Uranus and Neptune,The Astrophysical Journal, 613, (2004), pp. L77–L80. Preprint

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