February 16, 1948, Dutch-American astronomer Gerard Kuiper, Mirandadiscovered the moon of Uranus. This was the fifth moon discovered on Uranus, but astronomers have found 27 so far.
How did Gerard Kuiper discover Miranda?
When Kuyper first saw Miranda, in MacDonald Observatory It was in Texas and there from the 82 inch telescope Otto Strovo used for observation. Two weeks later, he was able to confirm what he had seen was a moon orbiting Uranus. The moon’s orbit around Uranus was confirmed on March 1, 1948.
Kuiper named the moon Miranda after a character in the play “The Tempest”. Shakespeare chose. Because the four moons of Uranus; Ariel, Ambril, titania And Oberon which were previously discovered, all named after Shakespeare’s characters or Alexander Pope were named
Previous moons were specifically named after fairies, while Miranda’s character was a human. After that, the discovered satellites of Uranus were named after characters from Shakespeare and Pope, fairies or non-fairies. This month is also named Uranus V.
Miranda
Miranda is the smallest and innermost of the five moons around Uranus. At only 470 kilometers in diameter, Miranda is one of the smallest closely observed objects in the Solar System.
Miranda’s only close-up images from the probe Voyager-2 who observed the moon during a flyby with Uranus in January 1986. During the flyby, the moon’s southern hemisphere was facing the Sun, so only that part was studied.
Miranda probably formed from an accretion disk that surrounded the planet shortly after it formed. Like other large moons, this moon is probably characterized by a rocky inner core surrounded by a mantle of ice.
Miranda’s level is changing in a strange way. The reason for such changes in this moon is probably the gravitational pull of Uranus, the result of the constant contraction and expansion of this planet on the moon causes it to heat up and collapse. In the inner part of the moon, so much contraction and expansion is formed that considerable energy is produced. This constant circulation and change in Miranda’s ice crust also creates something similar to lava in the Earth’s interior. In order to know more about this moon, we need to carry out an exploration mission in the future to find out what is happening in its other hemisphere.
Discoveries and other achievements of Gerard Kuiper
Gerard Peter Kuiper is a Dutch-American astronomer from whom the Kuiper belt is named. Kuiper discovered two natural satellites of the planets in the solar system, Uranus’ moon Miranda and Neptune’s moon. don’t go. In addition, he found carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of Mars and the presence of a methane-containing atmosphere over Saturn’s moon. Titandiscovered in 1944.
Kuiper spent most of his career at the University of Chicago, but moved to Tucson, Arizona in 1960 to establish the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona. Orr served as director of the laboratory for the rest of his life and also discovered several binary stars. Kuiper in the 1960s, to identify the landing sites on the moon for Apollo program helped.
