Setebos, a moon of Uranus

Classification
Natural satellite of Uranus
Average distance from Uranus
17,418,000 km
10,823,023 miles
Diameter across equator
48 km
30 miles
Time to orbit Uranus
2235 days
Year of Discovery
1999
Origin of Name
A god worshipped by Sycorax, mentioned in William Shakespeare’s The Tempest.

Setebos is one of Uranus’s outer irregular moons and follows a retrograde orbit, meaning it travels in the opposite direction to Uranus’s rotation. With a diameter of around 48 kilometres (30 miles), it is a small, faint satellite located far beyond the planet’s larger regular moons.

It was discovered in 1999 by John J. Kavelaars, Brett J. Gladman, Matthew J. Holman, and others, using the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope at Mauna Kea Observatory, Hawaii. Like other irregular moons, Setebos likely began life as an independent object in the outer Solar System before being captured by Uranus’s gravity.

Its distant, tilted, and elongated orbit suggests it may be related to other retrograde moons such as Prospero and Stephano, possibly originating from a single larger body that broke apart after capture.


Why is Setebos called Setebos?

Setebos is named after a god worshipped by the witch Sycorax in William Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Although never appearing as a character, Setebos is mentioned in the play by Caliban, Sycorax’s son, as a source of his mother’s magical power.

This naming continues Uranus’s tradition of drawing from Shakespeare's works for its moon names, and especially The Tempest for many of its irregular moons.

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