Space · Moons
Perdita
A moon of Uranus — An inner Portia-group moon — imaged by Voyager 2 in 1986, but only identified in 1999.
Quick facts
Parent planet
Diameter (mean)
30 km
Mass
1.8 × 10¹⁶ kg
2.5e-07 Moon masses
Mean orbital radius
76,417 km
Orbital period
0.638 Earth days
Discovery year
1986 (found 1999)
Discoverer
Erich Karkoschka (in Voyager 2 images)
Naming origin
Heroine of The Winter's Tale
Surface conditions
Perdita is an inner Uranian moon orbiting between Belinda and Puck. Voyager 2 imaged it in 1986 but it went unrecognized for 13 years; Erich Karkoschka found Perdita in a 1999 re-analysis of Voyager 2 images and confirmed the discovery in 2003 with Hubble follow-up.
Missions and observations
Every Uranus-system mission has had an opportunity to image or characterize Perdita. The list below is the Uranus-system mission catalog; specific Perdita encounters are documented in mission archives.
| Mission | Year at Uranus | Status |
|---|---|---|
|
Voyager 2 NASA |
1986 | Completed |
Naming etymology
Perdita was the abandoned-then-rescued daughter of Hermione in Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale. Adopted by the IAU in 2003.
Methodology & sources
Diameter, mass, and orbital parameters from JPL Solar System Dynamics — Physical Parameters. Discovery year and discoverer from the JPL Satellite Discovery Circumstances. Naming etymology from the IAU Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature. Stylized SVG hero composed from NASA / JPL imagery as visual reference; no photographs are reproduced.