Prospero (moon)

Prospero "(pros'-pər-oe," IPAEng|ˈprɒspəroʊ) is a relatively small retrograde irregular satellite of Uranus discovered on 1999-07-18 by the astrophysicist Matthew Holman and his team, and given the provisional 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.Grav, Tommy; Holman, Matthew J.; Gladman, Brett J.; Aksnes, Kaare"Photometric survey of the irregular satellites",Icarus, 166,(2003), pp. 33-45. [http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0301016 Preprint] ] However, this suggestion does not appear to be supported by the observed colours. The satellite appears neutral (grey) in the visible light (colour indices B-V=0.80, R-V=0.39)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. [http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0405605 Preprint] ] , similar to Setebos but different from Sycorax (which is "light red").

ee also

*Uranus' natural satellites
*irregular satellites

References

External links

* [http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Ura_Prospero Prospero Profile] by [http://solarsystem.nasa.gov NASA's Solar System Exploration]
* [http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/~jewitt/irregulars.html David Jewiit pages]
* [http://www.dtm.ciw.edu/sheppard/satellites/urasatdata.html Uranus' Known Satellites] (by Scott S. Sheppard)
* [http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/NatSats/NaturalSatellites.html Ephemeris IAU-NSES]