Sycorax (moon)
Discovery image of Sycorax
|
|
| Discovery | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | using the Hale telescope |
| Discovery date | September 6, 1997 |
| Orbital characteristics | |
|
Mean orbit radius
|
12,179,000 km |
| Eccentricity | 0.5224 |
| 1288.28 d | |
| Inclination | 159° (to the ecliptic) |
| Satellite of | Uranus |
| Physical characteristics | |
|
Mean radius
|
82.5+18 −21 |
| ~80,000 km² (estimate) | |
| Volume | ~2,000,000 km³ (estimate) |
| Mass | ~2.5×1018kg (estimate) |
|
Mean density
|
~1.3 g/cm³ (assumed) |
| 3.6 h | |
| ? | |
| Albedo | 0.049+0.038 −0.017 |
| Temperature | ~65 K (estimate) |
| 20.8 (V) | |
| 7.83±0.06 | |
Sycorax (/ˈsɪkəræks/ SIK-or-aks) is the largest retrograde irregular satellite of Uranus. Sycorax was discovered on 6 September 1997 by Brett J. Gladman, Philip D. Nicholson, Joseph A. Burns, and John J. Kavelaars using the 200-inch Hale telescope, together with Caliban, and given the temporary designation S/1997 U 2.
Officially confirmed as Uranus XVII, it was named after Sycorax, Caliban's mother in William Shakespeare's play The Tempest.
Sycorax follows a distant orbit, more than 20 times further from Uranus than the furthest regular moon, Oberon. Its orbit is retrograde, moderately inclined and eccentric. The orbital parameters suggest that it may belong, together with Setebos and Prospero, to the same dynamic cluster, suggesting common origin.
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