Ferdinand (moon) facts for kids
Ferdinand is a small, distant moon that orbits the planet Uranus. It's special because it moves in a "retrograde" orbit, meaning it goes around Uranus in the opposite direction compared to most of Uranus's other moons. Ferdinand is also not perfectly round, which is common for smaller moons.
Scientists Matthew J. Holman, John J. Kavelaars, Dan Milisavljevic, and Brett J. Gladman first spotted Ferdinand on August 13, 2001. At that time, it was given a temporary name: S/2001 U 2.
After its first sighting, Ferdinand was seen a few more times in 2001 and 2002. However, it became hard to find again. Luckily, Scott S. Sheppard rediscovered it on September 24, 2003, by looking at older images taken by himself and David C. Jewitt. Later, Matthew Holman confirmed these new observations.
Once its orbit was confirmed, Ferdinand was officially named Uranus XXIV. Its name comes from a character in William Shakespeare's famous play, The Tempest. Ferdinand is the son of the King of Naples in the play.
About Ferdinand
Ferdinand is the farthest known moon orbiting Uranus. It's quite small, estimated to be about 20 kilometers (about 12 miles) wide. To give you an idea, that's roughly the size of a small city.
Because it's so far away and small, it's very hard to study. Scientists can only make educated guesses about many of its features, like its exact size, weight, and what its surface is like. They think it's probably a dark, rocky, or icy body.
Its Unusual Orbit
Ferdinand's orbit is quite interesting. As mentioned, it's a "retrograde" orbit, meaning it moves backward compared to Uranus's rotation and most of its other moons. Imagine a car going the wrong way on a circular racetrack!
Its path around Uranus is also very "eccentric," which means it's not a perfect circle. Instead, it's more like a stretched-out oval. It also has a high "inclination," meaning its orbit is tilted quite a bit compared to Uranus's equator. These unusual orbital features suggest that Ferdinand might be a captured asteroid, rather than a moon that formed with Uranus.
It takes Ferdinand a very long time to complete one trip around Uranus – about 2,887 days, which is nearly eight Earth years!
Related pages
- Ephemeris (IUA) [1]
- Mean orbital parameters (NASA) [2]
See also
In Spanish: Ferdinando (satélite) para niños
