Discovery date January 20, 1986 Eccentricity 0.00026 ± 0.000096 Discovered 20 January 1986 Discoverer Richard J. Terrile | Mean orbit radius 49751.722 ± 0.149 km Satellite of Uranus Orbital period 8 hours Orbits Uranus | |
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Discovered by Richard J. Terrile / Voyager 2 Inclination 0.08479 ± 0.031° (to Uranus' equator) Similar Richard J Terrile discoveries, Uranus moons, Other celestial objects | ||
Cordelia (/kɔːrˈdiːliə/ kor-DEE-lee-ə) is the innermost known moon of Uranus. It was discovered from the images taken by Voyager 2 on January 20, 1986, and was given the temporary designation S/1986 U 7. It was not detected again until the Hubble Space Telescope observed it in 1997. Cordelia takes its name from the youngest daughter of Lear in William Shakespeare's King Lear. It is also designated Uranus VI.
Other than its orbit, radius of 20 km and geometric albedo of 0.08 virtually nothing is known about it. In the Voyager 2 images Cordelia appears as an elongated object with its major axis pointing towards Uranus. The ratio of axes of Cordelia's prolate spheroid is 0.7 ± 0.2.
Cordelia acts as the inner shepherd satellite for Uranus' Epsilon ring. Cordelia's orbit is within Uranus' synchronous orbit radius, and is therefore slowly decaying due to tidal deceleration.
Cordelia is very close to a 5:3 orbital resonance with Rosalind.