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Miranda has a strange mystery behind it.
It is the largest moon of the planet Uranus and
placed in the 11th position from the planet and orbits at
a distance of about 1,30,000 km from Uranus. A Dutch born
American astronomer Gerard Kupier discovered Miranda in 1948.
He named it after a character in William Shakespeare’s plays.
In 1986, United States Voyager 2
spacecraft, took the first close up pictures of Miranda to
find an odd body, which looks as if someone has torn it apart, and
then put it together. No other moon looks like this, at least not
that anyone knows of. |
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Miranda
So what really happened to the Uranian system?
At the time, Scientists conjectured that asteroids or comets must
have hit Miranda, smashing it apart, which further jumbled up and
reassembled together. But then if that were true the moons would
have still continued to circle the planet in their old orbits. Over
thousands of years, the moons might have slowly shifted to their
current orbits. Who knows, Miranda might have collided with another
moon, or something big enough to tear it apart. Over a large period
of time, these pieces would have come together to form the strange
looking body.
Now,
however, the scientists justify that most of Miranda’s features as
signs of substance, which have ascent to the surface from the moon’s
interior. They believe that the moon goes through periods of
increases in the internal temperature, caused mostly due to
gravitational forces. Miranda’s orbit may be periodically pulled
into an elliptical shape by its gravitational attraction to the
nearby moons Ariel and Umbriel. The combination of the gravitational
forces of Uranus, Ariel and Umbriel would cause Miranda to squeeze
and stretch, which affects the rock inside the moon. The rocks then
rub together producing heat that affects the surface.
But nothing is for
sure. It still remains a mystery to us. |
