Miranda is the eleventh of Uranus's known satellites. Miranda is the innermost of Uranus' large moons.
orbit: 129,850 km from Uranus
diameter: 472 km
mass: 6.3e19 kg
Miranda is a daughter of the magician Prospero in Shakespeare's The Tempest.
Discovered by Kuiper in 1948.
Voyager 2 was forced to fly close to Uranus in order to get the boost it needed to go on to Neptune and due to the orientation of the whole system at almost right angles to the ecliptic only Miranda was approached closely. Before Voyager, of course, little was known about Miranda and as it is not the largest or in any other way remarkable, it probably would not have been chosen as the prime target at Uranus. Voyager's good luck held up, however, as Miranda turned out to be by far the most interesting.
Miranda is about half water ice and half rocky material.
Miranda's surface is all mixed up with heavily cratered terrain intermixed with weird grooves, valleys and cliffs (one over 5 kilometers high).
At first, Voyager 2's images of Miranda were a mystery. Everyone had expected that Uranus' moons would show very little history of internal activity (like Callisto). Explaining the bizarre hitherto unknown terrain proved quite an embarrassment to those who had to do it on live TV. Their usual impressive and esoteric technical jargon gave out and they had to resort to using such terms as "chevron", "race track", and "layer cake" to describe Miranda's unique features.
It was initially thought that Miranda had been completely shattered and reassembled several times in its history, each time burying some parts of the original surface and exposing some of the interior. Now, however, a more mundane explanation involving the upwelling of partially melted ices seems to be in favor.
Voyager 2 passed so close to Miranda and the light levels are so low there (almost 3 billion km from the Sun) that special measures had to be employed to avoid smearing the images. This was accomplished by rotating the entire spacecraft while the camera's shutter was open to compensate for its motion. The resulting images have the best resolution of the entire mission.
It is actually possible to see Uranus's 4 largest moons with an amateur telescope, but Miranda is a real challenge. Perhaps with a very dark sky and a telescope with an 18 inch (50 cm) aperture or more it might be possible.
Miranda 是天王星已知衛(wèi)星中距其第十一近，也是天王星的大衛(wèi)星中靠天王星最近的一顆。
公轉(zhuǎn)軌道: 距天王星129,850 千米
衛(wèi)星直徑: 472 千米
質(zhì)量: 6.3e19 千克
Miranda是莎士比亞的作品《暴風(fēng)雨》中魔術(shù)師的一個女兒的名字
它是由Kuiper于1948年發(fā)現(xiàn)。
旅行者2號為了繼續(xù)飛向海王星，不得不飛近天王星以獲得推動力，由于整個飛行的方向幾乎與黃道面成90度角，所以只與天衛(wèi)五十分接近。在旅行者2號飛近之前，由于天衛(wèi)五不是海王星的衛(wèi)星，也沒有什么特別之處，因此也不可能被選為主要研究對象，所以當(dāng)時對于這顆衛(wèi)星幾乎是一無所知的。然而旅行者2號卻證明了這是一顆非常有趣的衛(wèi)星。
天衛(wèi)五是由冰與巖石各半混合而成。
天衛(wèi)五的表面是由眾多的環(huán)形山地形和奇異的凹線、山谷和懸崖組成（其中的一座有5千米高）。
起先，旅行者2號帶來的天衛(wèi)五圖片上的情景使人們困惑不解。每個人過去都認(rèn)為天王星的衛(wèi)星的地質(zhì)內(nèi)部活動的歷史極短（就像木衛(wèi)四）。對那些進(jìn)行現(xiàn)場直播的工作人員來說，如何去講解這至今仍無法解釋的古怪地形是一項很大的困難。他們常用的那些深奧難懂的行話也已經(jīng)無濟于事了，他們不得不用一些諸如“^或v的鉅齒圖”、“跑道”、和“多層蛋糕”之類的術(shù)語來措述天衛(wèi)五的奇異的牲。
后來人們認(rèn)為天衛(wèi)五自其產(chǎn)生后經(jīng)歷過多次的粉碎與重新聚合，并且每次都破壞了一部分的原始表面，露出一些內(nèi)部物質(zhì)。然而現(xiàn)在，另一更易被人們接受的理論產(chǎn)生了，那就是這些地形是由于熔化的冰而造成的。
旅行者2號飛得離天衛(wèi)五很近，又因為光線非常暗（離太陽大約30億千米），所以必須采取特別措施來防止照片模糊。它在拍攝時不停地自轉(zhuǎn)來跟上天衛(wèi)五的運動。這些成功的照片是整個任務(wù)中分辨率的圖片。
orbit: 129,850 km from Uranus
diameter: 472 km
mass: 6.3e19 kg
Miranda is a daughter of the magician Prospero in Shakespeare's The Tempest.
Discovered by Kuiper in 1948.
Voyager 2 was forced to fly close to Uranus in order to get the boost it needed to go on to Neptune and due to the orientation of the whole system at almost right angles to the ecliptic only Miranda was approached closely. Before Voyager, of course, little was known about Miranda and as it is not the largest or in any other way remarkable, it probably would not have been chosen as the prime target at Uranus. Voyager's good luck held up, however, as Miranda turned out to be by far the most interesting.
Miranda is about half water ice and half rocky material.
Miranda's surface is all mixed up with heavily cratered terrain intermixed with weird grooves, valleys and cliffs (one over 5 kilometers high).
At first, Voyager 2's images of Miranda were a mystery. Everyone had expected that Uranus' moons would show very little history of internal activity (like Callisto). Explaining the bizarre hitherto unknown terrain proved quite an embarrassment to those who had to do it on live TV. Their usual impressive and esoteric technical jargon gave out and they had to resort to using such terms as "chevron", "race track", and "layer cake" to describe Miranda's unique features.
It was initially thought that Miranda had been completely shattered and reassembled several times in its history, each time burying some parts of the original surface and exposing some of the interior. Now, however, a more mundane explanation involving the upwelling of partially melted ices seems to be in favor.
Voyager 2 passed so close to Miranda and the light levels are so low there (almost 3 billion km from the Sun) that special measures had to be employed to avoid smearing the images. This was accomplished by rotating the entire spacecraft while the camera's shutter was open to compensate for its motion. The resulting images have the best resolution of the entire mission.
It is actually possible to see Uranus's 4 largest moons with an amateur telescope, but Miranda is a real challenge. Perhaps with a very dark sky and a telescope with an 18 inch (50 cm) aperture or more it might be possible.
Miranda 是天王星已知衛(wèi)星中距其第十一近，也是天王星的大衛(wèi)星中靠天王星最近的一顆。
公轉(zhuǎn)軌道: 距天王星129,850 千米
衛(wèi)星直徑: 472 千米
質(zhì)量: 6.3e19 千克
Miranda是莎士比亞的作品《暴風(fēng)雨》中魔術(shù)師的一個女兒的名字
它是由Kuiper于1948年發(fā)現(xiàn)。
旅行者2號為了繼續(xù)飛向海王星，不得不飛近天王星以獲得推動力，由于整個飛行的方向幾乎與黃道面成90度角，所以只與天衛(wèi)五十分接近。在旅行者2號飛近之前，由于天衛(wèi)五不是海王星的衛(wèi)星，也沒有什么特別之處，因此也不可能被選為主要研究對象，所以當(dāng)時對于這顆衛(wèi)星幾乎是一無所知的。然而旅行者2號卻證明了這是一顆非常有趣的衛(wèi)星。
天衛(wèi)五是由冰與巖石各半混合而成。
天衛(wèi)五的表面是由眾多的環(huán)形山地形和奇異的凹線、山谷和懸崖組成（其中的一座有5千米高）。
起先，旅行者2號帶來的天衛(wèi)五圖片上的情景使人們困惑不解。每個人過去都認(rèn)為天王星的衛(wèi)星的地質(zhì)內(nèi)部活動的歷史極短（就像木衛(wèi)四）。對那些進(jìn)行現(xiàn)場直播的工作人員來說，如何去講解這至今仍無法解釋的古怪地形是一項很大的困難。他們常用的那些深奧難懂的行話也已經(jīng)無濟于事了，他們不得不用一些諸如“^或v的鉅齒圖”、“跑道”、和“多層蛋糕”之類的術(shù)語來措述天衛(wèi)五的奇異的牲。
后來人們認(rèn)為天衛(wèi)五自其產(chǎn)生后經(jīng)歷過多次的粉碎與重新聚合，并且每次都破壞了一部分的原始表面，露出一些內(nèi)部物質(zhì)。然而現(xiàn)在，另一更易被人們接受的理論產(chǎn)生了，那就是這些地形是由于熔化的冰而造成的。
旅行者2號飛得離天衛(wèi)五很近，又因為光線非常暗（離太陽大約30億千米），所以必須采取特別措施來防止照片模糊。它在拍攝時不停地自轉(zhuǎn)來跟上天衛(wèi)五的運動。這些成功的照片是整個任務(wù)中分辨率的圖片。