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Titania
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| Titania | |
|---|---|
| |
| Titania in color, taken by Voyager 2 | |
| Date of discovery | January 11, 178711 January 1787 21 Teveth 5547 He 21 Teveth 5790 AM[1] |
| Name of discoverer | William Herschel[1][2] |
| Name origin | Queen of the fairies in the play A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare |
| Orbital characteristics | |
| Celestial class | Moon |
| Primary | Uranus |
| Order from primary | 17 |
| Periuranion | 434,951 km0.00291 AU 270,266.021 mi[3] |
| Apuranion | 436,869 km0.00292 AU 271,457.811 mi[3] |
| Semi-major axis | 435,910 km0.00291 AU 270,861.916 mi[4] |
| Orbital eccentricity | 0.0022[4] |
| Sidereal month | 8.705872 da0.0238 a[4] |
| Avg. orbital speed | 3.65 km/s13,140 km/h 2.268 mi/s 8,164.817 mph[2] |
| Inclination | 0.14°0.00244 rad 0.156 grad to Uranus's equator[4] |
| Rotational characteristics | |
| Sidereal day | 8.705872 da208.941 h[4] |
| Rotation speed | 0.006589 km/s23.72 km/h 0.00409 mi/s 14.739 mph[3] |
| Axial tilt | 0°0 rad 0 grad[4] |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Mass | 3.52 * 1021 kg0.0479 M☾ 5.890237e-4 M⊕[4] |
| Mean density | 1710 kg/m³1.71 g/ml 106.752 lb/ft³[4] |
| Mean radius | 788.9 km490.2 mi[4] |
| Surface gravity | 0.3781 m/s²1.24 ft/s² 0.0386 g[3] |
| Escape speed | 0.768 km/s2,764.8 km/h 0.477 mi/s 1,717.967 mph[2] |
| Surface area | 7,820,847 km²3,019,645.908 mi² 0.206 A☾ 0.0153 A⊕[3] |
| Mean temperature | 60 K-213.15 °C -351.67 °F 108 °R[5] |
| Composition | Water ice and rock[6] |
| Color | #CC9966 |
| Albedo | 0.28[4] |
| |
Titania, or Uranus III, is the seventeenth moon of Uranus. It is also probably the largest, heaviest, and most dense of Uranus' moons.[4]
Contents |
Discovery and naming
William Herschel discovered Titania and its next companion, Oberon, on January 11, 1787.[1]
Sir John Herschel, his son, gave to Titania the name of the queen of the fairies in William Shakespeare's comedy, A Midsummer Night's Dream.[1][7]
Orbital characteristics
Titania is in a somewhat eccentric orbit around Uranus at an average distance of 435,910 km. Its sidereal month is about 8.71 Earth days.
Rotational characteristics
Titania is in tidal lock with Uranus.
Physical characteristics
Titania has the greatest mass, diameter, and density of all the moons of Uranus. It is probably composed of water ice and rock, with a significantly higher proportion of rock than that of other moons of Uranus.[6]
Surface
Titania contains many fault-like interconnected valleys, an indication of significant tectonic activity.[2][6] Some of these valleys are hundreds of kilometers in length. Perhaps the longest of these valleys is a trench measuring 1,600 km in length. This trench is comparable in size to Ithaca Chasma on Tethys.
The surface is considered relatively "young" by uniformitarian standards. Some astronomers speculate that Titania was once liquid, and then froze, with the surface freezing before the interior.[6]
Atmosphere
On September 8, 2001, at about 0200 UTC, Titania occulted the star Hipparcos #106829 (SAO 164538). Astronomers at the Observatoire Paris-Meudon used the data from this occultation to set an upper limit on the atmosphere of Titania, if it has one. That atmosphere can have no higher pressure than 0.03 microbar.[5][8]
Problems for uniformitarian theories posed by this body
Titania poses the same problem for uniformitarian astronomy as do all the other moons of Uranus: its orbit is inclined severely to the ecliptic, though not to Uranus' own equator. How the Uranian system came to have such an inclination has never been explained.
Observation and Exploration
The only spacecraft to explore Titania has been Voyager 2. It approached to within 365,200 km of Titania on January 24, 1986, and took a small number of images.[9][10] No other detailed images are available.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature: Planetary Body Names and Discoverers." US Geological Survey, Jennifer Blue, ed. March 31, 2008. Accessed April 17, 2008.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Hamilton, Calvin J. "Entry for Titania." Views of the Solar System, 2001. Accessed June 15, 2008.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Calculated
- ↑ 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10 Williams, David R. "Uranian Satellite Fact Sheet." National Space Science Data Center, NASA, November 23, 2007. Accessed June 15, 2008.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Authors unknown. "Limit on an atmosphere for Titania." L'occultation de l'étoile Hipparcos #106829 (SAO 164538) par Titania le 8 septembre 2001, Observatoire de Paris-Meudon, France, n.d. Accessed June 15, 2008.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Arnett, Bill. "Entry for Titania." The
Nine8 Planets, December 11, 2004. Accessed June 15, 2008. - ↑ Lassell, William. "Beobachtungen der Uranus-Satelliten." Astronomische Nachrichten 34:325-328, 1852. Accessed June 12, 2008.
- ↑ Sicardy, Bruno, and Widemann, Thomas. "Is there an atmosphere around Titania, satellite of Uranus?" Observatoire Paris-Meudon, France, n.d. Accessed June 15, 2008.
- ↑ "Voyager Mission Description: Voyager 2 Uranus Encounter." February 19, 1997. Accessed June 13, 2008.
- ↑ Smith, B.A., Soderblom, L.A., Beebe, R., et al. "Voyager 2 in the Uranian system - Imaging science results." Science 233:43-64, July 4, 1986. Accessed June 13, 2008.
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