Ophelia (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/ophelia-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 designation?Uranus VII
2. What is the type?Irregular inner moon
3. What is Ophelia?Ophelia is a small moon of the planet Uranus. It is irregularly shaped, about 43 kilometers long and 32 kilometers wide. It was discovered by the Voyager 2 spacecraft in 1986.
4. How fast does Ophelia orbit Uranus?Ophelia makes one full orbit around Uranus in about 10.5 hours. That is much faster than Earth’s Moon, which takes 27 days to orbit our planet.

Tidal Forces: Gravitational forces exerted by a celestial body that can stretch or compress another body.
Accretion: The process by which celestial bodies grow by accumulating smaller particles or objects.
Semi-major Axis: The average distance between the center of an orbiting body and the center of the body it orbits.