Two new satellites of Uranus look certain to be named Sycorax and Caliban,
after the witch and her feral son in Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Phil
Nicholson of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, who proposed the names, is
now waiting for official approval from the International Astronomical Union. The
two moons were discovered last autumn
(In Brief, 8 November 1997, p 29). Sycorax
takes 3.5 years to complete its irregular orbit, the longest period of any known
moon. The two probably formed beyond Neptune and were later captured by Uranus,
says Nicholson. Uranian moons are traditionally given Shakespearean names.
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