Sycorax.

SYCORAX - MOON OF URANUS

Sycorax, from Shakespeare's "The Tempest", is the witch who imprisoned Ariel and the mother of Caliban. Sycorax was discovered by Brett Gladman in 1997 using the 200 inch Hale telescope.

Orbit

Sycorax is the outermost known moon of Uranus, orbiting at a distance of 12 million kilometres. The other known moons of Uranus have almost circular orbits, whereas Sycorax has a very high degree of eccentricity, 0.509. It takes Sycorax over 3.5 years to complete one orbit of Uranus. This unusual orbit points to Sycorax having originated as an asteroid.

The orbit of Sycorax.

Physical properties

Sycorax is about 120 kilometres in diameter, but very little else is known of Sycorax's properties.

Interior

There is no information concerning the interior of Sycorax.

Atmosphere

No atmosphere has been detected.

Magnetic field

No magnetic field has been detected.

Surface

There are no images of Sycorax's surface.