Puck (moon)

Infobox Planet
name = Puck


bgcolour = #ffc0c0
discovery = yes
discoverer = Stephen P. Synnott / "Voyager 2"
discovered = December 30, 1985
mean_orbit_radius = 86,004.444 ± 0.064 kmcite journal|last=Jacobson|first=R.A.|title=The Orbits of the Inner Uranian Satellites From Hubble Space Telescope and Voyager2 Observations|journal=The Astronomical Journal|url=http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1998AJ....115.1195J|year=1998|volume=115|pages=1195–1199|doi=10.1086/300263]
eccentricity = 0.00012 ± 0.000061
period = 0.76183287 ± 0.000000014 d
inclination = 0.31921 ± 0.021° (to Uranus' equator)
satellite_of = Uranus
physical_characteristics = yes
mean_radius = 81 ± 2 kmcite journal|last=Karkoschka|first=Erich|authorlink=Erich Karkoschka|title=Voyager's Eleventh Discovery of a Satellite of Uranus and Photometry and the First Size Measurements of Nine Satellites|journal=Icarus|volume=151|pages=69–77|year=2001| doi=10.1006/icar.2001.6597|url=http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2001Icar..151...69K]
surface_area = ~82,400 km²Calculated on the basis of other parameters]
volume = ~2,225,000 km³
mass = ~2.9e|18 kg
density = ~1.3 g/cm³ (assumed)
surface_grav = 0.028 m/s²
escape_velocity = 0.069 km/s
rotation = synchronous
axial_tilt = zero
albedo = 0.11 ± 0.1 (at 0.55 μm)cite journal|last=Karkoschka|first=Erich|authorlink=Erich Karkoschka|title=Comprehensive Photometry of the Rings and 16 Satellites of Uranus with the Hubble Space Telescope|journal=Icarus|volume=151|pages=51–68|year=2001| doi=10.1006/icar.2001.6596|url=http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2001Icar..151...51K]
single_temperature = ~64 K
magnitude = 20.2 cite web|title=Puck Statistics|url=http://www.solarviews.com/eng/puck.htm|accessdate=2007-10-01]

Puck (pronEng|ˈpʌk "puk')" is an inner satellite of Uranus. Puck was discovered from the images taken by "Voyager 2" on 1985-12-30, and was given the temporary designation S/1985 U 1. [cite web|last=Smith|first=B.|coauthor=Hansen, C.|title=IAU Circular No. 4159|date=January 16 1986|url=http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iauc/04100/04159.html#Item1|accessdate=2006-08-06]

In Celtic mythology and English folklore, a "Puck" is a mischievous sprite, imagined as an evil demon by Christians; the moon is named after the Puck who appears in Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream", like a little sprite who travels around the globe at night with the fairies. It is also designated Uranus XV.cite web| title=Planet and Satellite Names and Discoverers|work=Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature|publisher=USGS Astrogeology|date=July 21 2006|url=http://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/append7.html|accessdate=2006-08-06]

Puck is the largest of small inner satellites of Uranus. It is intermediate in size between Portia and Miranda, the smallest of the five larger satellites. Puck's orbit is also located between these two moons. Little is known about it aside from its orbit, its radius about 81 km, and its geometric albedo approximately 0.11.

Of the moons discovered by the "Voyager 2" imaging team, only Puck was discovered early enough that the probe could be programmed to image it in some detail. Images showed that Puck has a shape of a slightly prolate spheroid (ratio between axises is 0.97 ± 0.04).. Its surface is heavily crateredcite journal|last=Thomas|first=P.|coaurhors=Veverka, J.; Johnson, T.V.; et.al|title=Voyager observations of 1985U1|journal=Icarus|year=1987|volume=72|pages=79–83|doi=10.1016/0019-1035(87)90121-7|url=http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1987Icar...72...79T] and is grey in color. There are three named craters on the surface of Puck. Observations with Hubble Space Telescope and large terrestrial telescopes found water ice absorption features in the spectrum of Puck.cite journal|last=Dumas|first=Christophe|coaurhors=Smith, Bradford A.; and Terrile, Richard J.|title=Hubble Space Telescope NICMOS Multiband Photometry of Proteus and Puck|journal=Astronomical Journal|year=2003|volume=126|pages=1080–1085|doi=10.1086/375909|url=http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2003AJ....126.1080D]

References

External links

[http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Ura_Puck Puck Profile] by [http://solarsystem.nasa.gov NASA's Solar System Exploration]

ee also

* [http://www.strykfoto.org/outericymoons/icymoons.htm Page that includes a reprocessed version of the Voyager Puck image]
*List of craters on Puck