Titania (moon)

Titania
A round spherical body is almost fully illuminated. The surface has a mottled appearance with bright patches among relatively dark terrain. The terminator is located near the right edge. A large crater can be seen at the terminator in the upper half of the image. Another bright crater can be seen at the bottom. A large canyon runs from the darkness at the lower-right side to visible center of the body.
Titania, as imaged by Voyager 2, January 1986. Along the terminator are visible the moon's largest known impact crater, Gertrude, at upper right and several enormous canyon-like grabens at lower right.
Discovery
Discovered byWilliam Herschel
Discovery dateJanuary 11, 1787[1]
Designations
Designation
Uranus III
Pronunciation/təˈtɑːniə, təˈtniə/[2]
AdjectivesTitanian /təˈtɑːniən/[3][a]
Orbital characteristics
435910 km[4]
Eccentricity0.0011[4]
8.706234 d[4]
3.64 km/s[b]
Inclination0.340° (to Uranus's equator)[4]
Satellite ofUranus
Physical characteristics
788.4±0.6 km (0.1235 Earths)[5]
7820000 km2[c]
Volume2054000000 km3[d]
Mass(3.4550±0.0509)×1021 kg[7]
Mean density
1.683 g/cm3 (calculated)
0.371 m/s²[e]
0.765 km/s[f]
presumed synchronous[8]
Albedo
  • 0.35 (geometrical)
  • 0.17 (Bond)[9]
Surface temp. min mean max
solstice[5] 60 K 70 ± 7 K 89 K
13.9[10]
Atmosphere
Surface pressure
<1–2 mPa (10–20 nbar)
Composition by volume

Titania (/təˈtɑːniə, təˈtniə/), also designated Uranus III, is the largest moon of Uranus. At a diameter of 1,578 kilometres (981 mi) it is the eighth largest moon in the Solar System, with a surface area comparable to that of Australia. Discovered by William Herschel in 1787, it is named after the queen of the fairies in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Its orbit lies inside Uranus's magnetosphere.

Titania consists of approximately equal amounts of ice and rock, and is probably differentiated into a rocky core and an icy mantle. A layer of liquid water may be present at the core–mantle boundary. Its surface, which is relatively dark and slightly red in color, appears to have been shaped by both impacts and endogenic processes. It is covered with numerous impact craters reaching up to 326 kilometres (203 mi) in diameter, but is less heavily cratered than Oberon, outermost of the five large moons of Uranus. It may have undergone an early endogenic resurfacing event which obliterated its older, heavily cratered surface. Its surface is cut by a system of enormous canyons and scarps, the result of the expansion of its interior during the later stages of its evolution. Like all major moons of Uranus, Titania probably formed from an accretion disk which surrounded the planet just after its formation.

Infrared spectroscopy conducted from 2001 to 2005 revealed the presence of water ice as well as frozen carbon dioxide on Titania's surface, suggesting it may have a tenuous carbon dioxide atmosphere with a surface pressure of about 10 nanopascals (10−13 bar). Measurements during Titania's occultation of a star put an upper limit on the surface pressure of any possible atmosphere at 1–2 mPa (10–20 nbar). The Uranian system has been studied up close only once, by the spacecraft Voyager 2 in January 1986. It took several images of Titania, which allowed mapping of about 40% of its surface.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Herschel 1787 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ "Titania". Lexico UK English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on March 2, 2020. Lexico/OED. Only the first pronunciation is used in A Midsummer Night's Dream, e.g. Shakespeare Recording Society (1995) The Tempest (audio CD). The second is used by interviewees in a podcast by the Folger Shakespeare Library, but not by the narrator: Brave New Worlds: The Shakespearean Moons of Uranus
  3. ^ Lewis (2002) Anthony Burgess: A Biography, p. 387
  4. ^ a b c d Cite error: The named reference orbit was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Widemann Sicardy et al. 2009 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference French et al. 2024 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Jacobson (2023), as cited in French et al. (2024)[6]
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference Smith Soderblom et al. 1986 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference Karkoschka, Hubble 2001 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference Newton Teece 1995 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).


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