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  1. Home
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  3. October
  4. 24
  5. Umbriel (moon)

Events on October 24 in history

Umbriel (moon)
1851Oct, 24

William Lassell discovers the moons Umbriel, and Ariel, orbiting Uranus.

Umbriel is a moon of Uranus discovered on October 24, 1851, by William Lassell. It was discovered at the same time as Ariel and named after a character in Alexander Pope's poem The Rape of the Lock. Umbriel consists mainly of ice with a substantial fraction of rock, and may be differentiated into a rocky core and an icy mantle. The surface is the darkest among Uranian moons, and appears to have been shaped primarily by impacts. However, the presence of canyons suggests early endogenic processes, and the moon may have undergone an early endogenically driven resurfacing event that obliterated its older surface.

Covered by numerous impact craters reaching 210 km (130 mi) in diameter, Umbriel is the second most heavily cratered satellite of Uranus after Oberon. The most prominent surface feature is a ring of bright material on the floor of Wunda crater. This moon, like all moons of Uranus, probably formed from an accretion disk that surrounded the planet just after its formation. The Uranian system has been studied up close only once, by the spacecraft Voyager 2 in January 1986. It took several images of Umbriel, which allowed mapping of about 40% of the moon's surface.

Umbriel (moon)Umbriel (moon)
William Lassell (18 June 1799 – 5 October 1880) was an English merchant and astronomer. He is remembered for his improvements to the reflecting telescope and his ensuing discoveries of four planetary satellites.

References

  • William Lassell
  • Umbriel (moon)
  • Ariel (moon)
  • Uranus

Choose Another Date

Events on 1851

  • 12Feb

    Australian gold rushes

    Edward Hargraves announces he has found gold in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia, starting the Australian gold rushes.
  • 11Mar

    Giuseppe Verdi

    The first performance of Rigoletto by Giuseppe Verdi takes place in Venice.
  • 21May

    Colombia

    Slavery is abolished in Colombia, South America.
  • 5Jun

    Uncle Tom's Cabin

    Harriet Beecher Stowe's anti-slavery serial, Uncle Tom's Cabin, or Life Among the Lowly, starts a ten-month run in the National Era abolitionist newspaper.
  • 24Oct

    Umbriel (moon)

    William Lassell discovers the moons Umbriel, and Ariel, orbiting Uranus.

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