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Margaret (moon)

Adapted from Wikipedia · Discoverer experience

A colorful image of the planet Uranus taken by NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft in 1986, showing the planet as seen from space.

Margaret is the only known prograde irregular satellite of the moons of Uranus. It was discovered by Scott S. Sheppard, along with others, in 2003 and given the provisional designation S/2003 U 3. After its discovery was confirmed, it became known as Uranus XXIII. The moon was named after the servant of Hero in William Shakespeare’s play Much Ado About Nothing. The name was also chosen to match the name of Sheppard’s mother.

Orbit

Animation of discovery images showing Margaret's motion relative to background stars and galaxies

Margaret is special because it is the only known moon that moves in the same direction as Uranus while also having an unusual path. Its orbit is tilted at about 57 degrees, which is close to the edge of what is stable. Over time, the shape of Margaret's orbit changes due to the pull of the Sun and planets. In 2010, its orbit became very stretched out, making it one of the most stretched-out orbits for any moon we know of, though another moon, Nereid, usually has an even more stretched-out path.

Images

A stunning view of the planet Jupiter and its four largest moons — Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto — taken by the Voyager 1 spacecraft.
A colorful view of the dwarf planet Pluto and its large moon Charon, showing their unique surface features as captured by the New Horizons spacecraft.
An image of asteroid 243 Ida and its tiny moon Dactyl taken by the Galileo spacecraft in 1993, showing details of the asteroid's surface and color variations.

Related articles

William Shakespeare
Uranus
Nereid (moon)

This article is a child-friendly adaptation of the Wikipedia article on Margaret (moon), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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