1 day / second

0.5 AU

Miranda

Moon of Uranus

A chaotic-looking moon with an extremely varied surface featuring giant fault canyons up to 12 kilometers deep, unique "racetrack" patterns, and jagged terrain suggesting a violent past where it was broken apart and reassembled multiple times.

Key Facts

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Wikipedia

mass

6.2930e+19 kg

radius

235.8 km

semi-major axis

129,390 km

eccentricity

0.001

inclination

86.462º

longitude of the ascending node

argument of periapsis

orbital period

1.406 days

surface gravity

0.008 g

discovery date

February 16, 1948

discovered by

Gerard Kuiper

name origins

Named after Miranda from Shakespeare's play "The Tempest"

dimensions

468 kilometers in diameter

albedo

0.32

material composition

Primarily water ice and silicate rock

density

Approximately 1.2 g/cm³
Parent Planet
Uranus

A cold, blue-green ice giant planet tipped nearly sideways on its axis, with a set of narrow rings and a family of at least 27 moons named after literary characters.

Spacecraft Visits
Voyager 2

Flyby

NASA

Launched in 1977, visited in 1986

Voyager 2 made its closest approach to Miranda on January 24, 1986, capturing high-resolution images of the moon's peculiar surface features including giant fault scarps, valleys, and distinctive coronae that suggest geological activity and possible resurfacing.

Other Moons
Hyperion
Phoebe
Puck
Ariel
Umbriel
Titania