Caliban, a moon of Uranus
4,493,126 miles
45 miles
It was discovered in September 1997 by astronomers Brett J. Gladman, Philip D. Nicholson, Joseph A. Burns, and John J. Kavelaars, using the 200-inch Hale Telescope at Palomar Observatory in California. Because of its great distance from Uranus and relatively small size, Caliban appears very faint, even through powerful telescopes.
Caliban is named after a character in William Shakespeare’s The Tempest. In the play, Caliban is the deformed and often bitter son of the witch Sycorax. He is the original inhabitant of the island where Prospero and Miranda live. Although depicted as brutish and resentful, Caliban is also a complex character, sometimes poetic, sometimes vengeful, whose relationship with Prospero is filled with conflict.
The name follows the convention of naming Uranus’s moons after characters from Shakespeare’s plays or, in some cases, Alexander Pope’s poetry. Caliban’s “mother” in the play, Sycorax, is also honoured in Uranus’s moon family.
