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Uranus Menu  

Perdita, a moon of Uranus

Belinda
Perdita
Puck

Classification
Natural satellite of Uranus
Average distance from Uranus
76,420 km
47,485 miles
Diameter across equator
26 km
16 miles
Time to orbit Uranus
15 hours
Year of Discovery
1999
Origin of Name
Daughter of the King and Queen of Sicily in Shakespeare's play The Winter's Tale. Perdita is abandoned as a newborn and raised by a shepherdess before reuniting later with her family.

Perdita is one of the 27 moons of Uranus. It orbits the planet at an average distance of 76,420 kilometres (47,490 miles). Perdita has a diameter of 26 kilometres (16 miles) and takes 15 hours to complete an orbit of the planet.


Perdita is a a member of a group of Uranus' moons called the Portia group. The Portia group contains nine moons (Bianca, Cressida, Desdemona, Juliet, Portia, Rosalind, Cupid, Belinda and Perdita) which have similar appearances and characteristics. These moons may have unstable orbits which leads to the possibility that, at some point in the distant future, they could collide with each other, break up into pieces, form rings or crash into Uranus.

Perdita is classed as an inner regular prograde moon of Uranus. It travels around the planet in the same direction of the planet's rotation and is believed to have formed from materials spinning around the planet.


Why is the moon Perdita called Perdita?

Perdita is a character in The Winter's Tale, a play written by William Shakespeare in 1610 or 1611. She is the daughter of Leontes and Hermione, the King and Queen of Sicily. Leontes does not trust his wife, and suspects that Perdita is not his daughter, so orders his servant, Antigonus, to abandon the newborn Perdita somewhere remote. Antigonus leaves her in the care of a shepherdess, who raises her as her own. Perdita is a kind and compassionate character who eventually reunites with her family.

Most of the moons of Uranus get their names from characters in the works of William Shakespeare. The name Perdita comes from the Latin word perditus which means "lost" or "abandoned" which is fitting for a moon which was first photographed in 1986 but wasn't seen again until 2003.


Belinda
Perdita
Puck
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