|Discovered by||Philip D. Nicholson,
Brett J. Gladman,
Joseph A. Burns,
John J. Kavelaars
|Discovery time||September 6, 1997|
|Avg. distance from the center of its orbital path||12,179,000 km|
|How egg-shaped its orbit is
|How long it takes to complete an orbit||1288.28 d|
|Angle above the reference plane
|159° (to the ecliptic)|
|What it orbits||Uranus|
|Size and Other Qualities|
|Average distance from its center to its surface||12,179,000 km|
|Area of its surface||~70,000 km² (estimate)|
|Volume inside it||~1,800,000 km³ (estimate)|
|Mass||~5.4×1018 kg (estimate)|
|Average density||~1.5 g/cm³ (estimate)|
|Gravity at its surface||~0.040 m/s2 (estimate)|
|Slowest speed able to escape into space
|~0.087 km/s (estimate)|
|How much light it reflects||0.04 (assumed)|
Sycorax was found on September 6, 1997 by Brett J. Gladman, Philip D. Nicholson, Joseph A. Burns, and John J. Kavelaars. They found it using the 200-inch Hale telescope. They also found Caliban. Sycorax was given the designation S/1997 U 2.
Orbit[change | change source]
The diagram illustrates the orbital parameters of the retrograde non-spherical moons of Uranus (in polar co-ordinates) with the eccentricity of the orbits represented by the segments extending from the pericentre to the apocentre.
Physical characteristics[change | change source]
The diameter of Sycorax is estimated at 150 km (assuming albedo of 0.04) making it the biggest non-spherical moon of Uranus, comparable in size with Himalia, the biggest non-spherical moon of Jupiter.
The rotation period could not be estimated well (best fit ~4 h).
Related pages[change | change source]
References[change | change source]
- Scott S. Sheppard, David C. Jewitt, and Jan Kleyna An Ultradeep Survey for Irregular Satellites of Uranus: Limits to Completeness, The Astronomical Journal, 129 (2005), pages 518–525 . Preprint
- GLADMAN, NICHOLSON, BURNS, KAVELAARS, MARSDEN, WILLIAMS & OFFUTT Discovery of two distant irregular moons of Uranus, Nature, 392 (1998), pp. 897 - 899
- Grav, Tommy; Holman, Matthew J.; Gladman, Brett J.; Aksnes, Kaare Photometric survey of the irregular satellites,Icarus, 166,(2003), pp. 33-45. Preprint
Other websites[change | change source]