Puck (moon)

Puck—the largest inner moon of Uranus—was discovered from the images taken by Voyager 2 on 30 December 1985. It was given the temporary designation S/1985 U 1.{{sfn|IAUC 4159}}

The moon was later named after the character Puck who appears in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, a little sprite who travels around the globe at night with the fairies. In Celtic mythology and English folklore, a Puck is a mischievous sprite, imagined as an evil demon by Christians.

It is also designated Uranus XV.{{sfn|USGS: Planet and Satellite Names and Discoverers}}

File:Puck map (Stooke).jpg

Puck is the largest inner moon of Uranus, orbiting inside the orbit of Miranda. It is intermediate in size between Portia (the second-largest inner moon) and Miranda (the smallest of the five major moons). Puck's orbit is located between the rings of Uranus and Miranda. Little is known about Puck aside from its orbit,{{sfn|Jacobson|1998}} radius of about 81 km,{{sfn|Karkoschka, Voyager|2001}} and geometric albedo in visible light of approximately 0.11.{{sfn|Karkoschka, Hubble|2001}}

Of the moons discovered by the Voyager 2 imaging team, only Puck was discovered early enough that the probe could be programmed to image it in some detail.{{sfn|Smith Soderblom et al.|1986}} Images showed that Puck has a shape of a slightly prolate spheroid (ratio between axes is 0.93–1).{{sfn|Karkoschka, Voyager|2001}} Its surface is heavily cratered{{sfn|Thomas Veverka et al.|1987}} and is grey in color.{{sfn|Karkoschka, Voyager|2001}} There are three named craters on the surface of Puck, the largest being about 45 km in diameter.{{sfn|Smith Soderblom et al.|1986}} Observations with the Hubble Space Telescope and large terrestrial telescopes found water-ice absorption features in the spectrum of Puck.{{sfn|Karkoschka, Hubble|2001}}{{sfn|Dumas Smith et al.|2003}}

Little is known about the internal structure of Puck. It is probably made of a mixture of water ice, and may have been collisionally disrupted and reaccreted as a rubble pile.{{sfn|Cartwright|Beddingfield|Nordheim|2021}} The presence of a 3.0 deep 3.0 micron feature attributed to the O-H stretching mode suggests that water ice or hydrated minerals are a common component on Puck's surface.{{Cite journal |last1=Belyakov |first1=Matthew |last2=Davis |first2=M. Ryleigh |last3=Milby |first3=Zachariah |last4=Wong |first4=Ian |last5=Brown |first5=Michael E. |date=2024-05-01 |title=JWST Spectrophotometry of the Small Satellites of Uranus and Neptune |journal=The Planetary Science Journal |volume=5 |issue=5 |pages=119 |doi=10.3847/PSJ/ad3d55 |doi-access=free |arxiv=2404.06660 |bibcode=2024PSJ.....5..119B |issn=2632-3338}} Its surface is coated with a dark material similar to that found in the main rings.{{sfn|Dumas Smith et al.|2003}} The dark material is probably made of rocks or radiation-processed organics; it is possible that material spiralling inwards from Uranus's μ ring coats Puck's leading hemisphere as well.{{sfn|Cartwright|Beddingfield|Nordheim|2021}} Puck, as well as the other inner satellites of Uranus, is darker than the average inner Neptunian satellite, which could be either due to a higher level of solar irradiation at Uranus as opposed to Neptune, or a distinct composition. The absence of craters with bright rays implies that Puck is not differentiated, meaning that ice and non-ice components have not separated from each other into a core and mantle.{{sfn|Smith Soderblom et al.|1986}}

Puck has three craters named Bogle, Butz, and Lob, which are named after mischievous spirits from Scottish, German, and British folklore respectively. Details about these craters are currently unknown.File:Puck with craters.jpg

• Moons of Uranus
• Rings of Uranus

{{notes

| notes =

{{efn

| name = calculated

| Calculated on the basis of other parameters.

}}

}}

{{reflist|30em}}

• {{cite journal| doi = 10.1086/300263| last1 = Jacobson| first1 = R. A.| year = 1998| title = The Orbits of the Inner Uranian Satellites From Hubble Space Telescope and Voyager 2 Observations| journal = The Astronomical Journal| volume = 115| issue = 3| pages = 1195–1199| bibcode = 1998AJ....115.1195J| doi-access = free}}
• {{cite journal| doi = 10.1006/icar.2001.6597| last = Karkoschka| first = Erich| author-link = Erich Karkoschka| year = 2001| title = Voyager's Eleventh Discovery of a Satellite of Uranus and Photometry and the First Size Measurements of Nine Satellites| journal = Icarus| volume = 151| issue = 1| pages = 69–77| bibcode = 2001Icar..151...69K| ref = {{sfnRef|Karkoschka, Voyager|2001}}}}
• {{cite journal| doi = 10.1006/icar.2001.6596| last = Karkoschka| first = Erich| author-link = Erich Karkoschka| year = 2001| title = Comprehensive Photometry of the Rings and 16 Satellites of Uranus with the Hubble Space Telescope| journal = Icarus| volume = 151| issue = 1| pages = 51–68| bibcode = 2001Icar..151...51K| ref = {{sfnRef|Karkoschka, Hubble|2001}}}}
• {{cite journal| doi = 10.1016/0019-1035(87)90121-7| last1 = Thomas| first1 = P.| last2 = Veverka| first2 = J.| last3 = Johnson| first3 = T.V.| last4 = Brown| first4 = Robert Hamilton| year = 1987| title = Voyager observations of 1985U1| journal = Icarus| volume = 72| issue = 1| pages = 79–83| bibcode = 1987Icar...72...79T| ref = {{sfnRef|Thomas Veverka et al.|1987}}}}
• {{cite journal| doi = 10.1126/science.233.4759.43| last1 = Smith| first1 = B. A.| last2 = Soderblom| first2 = L. A.| last3 = Beebe| first3 = A.| last4 = Bliss| first4 = D.| last5 = Boyce| first5 = J. M.| last6 = Brahic| first6 = A.| last7 = Briggs| first7 = G. A.| last8 = Brown| first8 = R. H.| last9 = Collins| first9 = S. A.| date = 4 July 1986| title = Voyager 2 in the Uranian System: Imaging Science Results| journal = Science| volume = 233| issue = 4759| pages = 43–64| pmid = 17812889| bibcode = 1986Sci...233...43S| s2cid = 5895824| ref = {{sfnRef|Smith Soderblom et al.|1986}}| url = https://zenodo.org/record/1230972}}
• {{cite journal| last1 = Dumas| first1 = Christophe| last2 = Smith| first2 = Bradford A.| last3 = Terrile| first3 = Richard J.| year = 2003| title = Hubble Space Telescope NICMOS Multiband Photometry of Proteus and Puck| journal = The Astronomical Journal| volume = 126| issue = 2| pages = 1080–1085| doi = 10.1086/375909| bibcode = 2003AJ....126.1080D| ref = {{sfnRef|Dumas Smith et al.|2003}}| doi-access = }}
• {{cite journal

| last = Marsden

| first = Brian G.

| date = January 16, 1986

| title = Satellites of Uranus and Neptune

| journal = IAU Circular

| issue = 4159

| url = http://www.cbat.eps.harvard.edu/iauc/04100/04159.html#Item1

| access-date = 2012-01-24

| ref = {{sfnRef|IAUC 4159}}

}}

• {{cite web

| author = USGS/IAU

| date = July 21, 2006

| title = Planet and Satellite Names and Discoverers

| publisher = USGS Astrogeology

| work = Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature

| url = http://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Page/Planets#UranianSystem

| access-date = 2012-01-24

| ref = {{sfnRef|USGS: Planet and Satellite Names and Discoverers}}

}}

• {{Cite journal |last1=French |first1=Richard G. |last2=Hedman |first2=Matthew M. |last3=Nicholson |first3=Philip D. |last4=Longaretti |first4=Pierre-Yves |last5=McGhee-French |first5=Colleen A. |date=2024-03-15 |title=The Uranus system from occultation observations (1977–2006): Rings, pole direction, gravity field, and masses of Cressida, Cordelia, and Ophelia |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0019103524000150 |journal=Icarus |volume=411 |pages=115957 |doi=10.1016/j.icarus.2024.115957 |issn=0019-1035 |ref= {{sfnRef|French et al.|2024}}|arxiv=2401.04634 |bibcode=2024Icar..41115957F }}

• {{Cite journal |last1=Cartwright |first1=Richard J. |last2=Beddingfield |first2=Chloe B. |last3=Nordheim |first3=Tom A. |display-authors=etal |title=The Science Case for Spacecraft Exploration of the Uranian Satellites: Candidate Ocean Worlds in an Ice Giant System |date=June 2021 |journal=The Planetary Society Journal |volume=2 |issue=3 |page=120 |doi=10.3847/PSJ/abfe12 |doi-access=free |arxiv=2105.01164 |bibcode=2021PSJ.....2..120C }}

{{Commons category|Puck (moon)}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20071004223151/http://www.strykfoto.org/outericymoons/icymoons.htm Page that includes a reprocessed version of the Voyager 2 Puck image]

{{Uranus}}

{{Moons of Uranus}}

{{Solar System moons (compact)}}

{{Good article}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Puck (Moon)}}

Category:Moons of Uranus

19851230

Category:Moons with a prograde orbit

Category:A Midsummer Night's Dream

Category:Puck (folklore)