Ferdinand (moon)

High school (ages 12+)
Space & Astronomy

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/ferdinand-moon

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the astronomical classification?Irregular moon of Uranus
2. What is the orbital semi-major axis?Approximately 20.9 million kilometers from Uranus
3. What is Ferdinand?Ferdinand is a tiny, dark moon that orbits the planet Uranus. It is one of the outer irregular moons that was found in 2001. Its orbit is far from Uranus and takes about 125 Earth days to go around.
4. Why is Ferdinand named after a Shakespeare character?Ferdinand is named after Prince Ferdinand from Shakespeare's play "The Tempest." Astronomers chose Shakespeare characters for Uranus moons after discovering the first ones. This gives the moons a literary connection.

Irregular Satellite: A moon with a distant, often inclined or retrograde orbit, likely captured rather than co-formed.
Albedo: The measure of the diffuse reflection of solar radiation, indicating the brightness of a celestial body's surface.
Carbonaceous Material: Substances containing carbon, often found in dark, primitive asteroids and meteorites.