Astronomy and Space

Ferdinand (moon)

Ferdinand, also known as Uranus XXIV and previously as S/2001 U 2, is the outermost known moon of Uranus. It was discovered on 13 August 2001 by Dan Milisavljevic, Matthew J. Holman, JJ Kavelaars, and Tommy Grav at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. Named after a prince from William Shakespeare's play The Tempest, Ferdinand orbits Uranus at an average distance of 20.4 million km (12.7 million mi) and takes about 7.63 Earth years to complete one orbit. It follows a retrograde orbit, meaning it moves in the opposite direction to the planet's orbit around the Sun. Although Ferdinand has not been studied up close by any spacecraft, telescope observations suggest that it has an elongated shape with a diameter of about 20 km (12 mi) and a rotation period of either 12 or 24 hours.

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See also

• ▸BRUIE
• ▸Bourzey castle
• ▸Astronaut training

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