Trinculo (moon)
Very Large Telescope image of Trinculo (circled) next to a bright background star on 3 September 2002 | |
| Discovery | |
|---|---|
| Discovered by | |
| Discovery site | Cerro Tololo Obs. |
| Discovery date | 13 August 2001 |
| Designations | |
Designation | Uranus XXI |
| Pronunciation | /ˈtrɪŋkjʊloʊ/ |
Named after | Trinculo (The Tempest character) |
| S/2001 U 1 | |
| Orbital characteristics | |
| Epoch 1 January 2020 (JD 2458849.5) | |
| Satellite of | Uranus |
| Proper orbital elements | |
Proper semi-major axis | 8,502,600 km (0.056836 AU) |
Proper eccentricity | 0.220 |
Proper inclination | 167.1° (to ecliptic) |
Proper orbital period | 2.05 years (749 d) |
Precession of perihelion | 500.579374 arcsec / yr |
Precession of the ascending node | 303.868699 arcsec / yr |
| Physical characteristics | |
| 12–19 km 18 km | |
| Albedo | >0.03 |
Spectral type |
|
| 25.4 (average) | |
| 12.7 11.92±0.18 | |
Trinculo, also known as Uranus XXI and previously as S/2001 U 1, is a small irregular satellite or moon of Uranus on a very wide and elliptical orbit. It was discovered on 13 August 2001 by Matthew J. Holman, John J. Kavelaars, and Dan Milisavljevic using the 4.0-meter Víctor M. Blanco Telescope at Cerro Tololo Observatory, Chile. It was named after Trinculo, a jester from William Shakespeare's play The Tempest. Trinculo orbits Uranus in the retrograde direction at an average distance of 8.5 million km (5.3 million mi) and takes about 749 Earth days (2.1 Earth years) to complete one orbit. Trinculo is estimated to be about 18 km (11 mi) in diameter and its surface might be dark and gray in color.