There are 288 discovered natural satellites – or moons, as they are colloquially known – in the Solar system. Most of these are found in the outer gas giants. However, many of these have not received proper names as they were discovered recently and have yet to be confirmed. Only 164 moons have proper names.
Out of those, there is one moon whose name starts with the letter U.
| Name | Planet | Name meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Umbriel | Uranus | Named after the “dusky melancholy sprite” in Alexander Pope’s works. |
Umbriel
Umbriel is one of Uranus’s major moons, discovered in 1851 by William Lassell. Named after a melancholy sprite from Alexander Pope’s poem “The Rape of the Lock,” this moon is approximately 1,169 kilometers in diameter, making it the third-largest of Uranus’s moons. It is notably darker than Uranus’s other major moons, reflecting only 16% of the sunlight that hits its surface. This darkness may be due to an ancient impact that exposed darker material from its interior. Its most distinctive feature is the bright Wunda crater near its equator, which appears as a ring of bright material on an otherwise dark surface. Like other major Uranian moons, Umbriel is believed to be composed of roughly equal parts water ice and rock.
Click on a letter below for a list of moons that begin with it.
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z
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For more on how moons are named check out this article.