#History #Today #Gerard #Kuiper #Discovers #Moon #Miranda #Uranus
SPACE — On February 16, 1948, Dutch-American astronomer Gerard Kuiper discovered Miranda, one of Uranus’ moons. When Kuiper first saw Miranda, he was at Texas’ McDonald Observatory, where he was using the 82-inch Otto Struve Telescope.
Two weeks later, he was able to confirm that what he saw was a moon orbiting Uranus. Kuiper then chose to name the moon Miranda after a character in Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’. Because, the other four months are also named after Shakespearean characters.
Uranus has 27 moons, but so far researchers have focused on the five largest. They are Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, Oberon, and Miranda.
Of the five, Ariel is the smallest with a width of 1,160 kilometers. Meanwhile, Titania is the largest with a width of 1,580 km. For comparison, our moon is about 3,500 km wide. Source: Space.com
