100px|The high-resolution Voyager 2 image of Titania taken on January 24, 1986
Titania is the largest of the moons of Uranus and the eighth largest moon in the Solar System. Discovered by William Herschel in 1787, Titania is named after the queen of the fairies in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Its orbit lies inside Uranus' magnetosphere. Titania consists of approximately equal amounts of ice and rock, and is likely differentiated into a rocky core and an icy mantle. A layer of liquid water may be present at the core–mantle boundary. The surface of Titania, which is relatively dark and slightly red in color, appears to have been shaped by both impacts and endogenic processes. It is covered by numerous impact craters reaching 326 km in diameter, but is less heavily cratered than the surface of Uranus' outermost moon, Oberon. Titania probably underwent an early endogenic resurfacing event that obliterated its older, heavily cratered surface. Like all major moons of Uranus, Titania probably formed from an accretion disk that surrounded the planet just after its formation. As of 2011, the Uranian system has been studied up close only once: by the spacecraft Voyager 2 in January 1986. It took several images of Titania, which allowed mapping of about 40% of the moon’s surface. (more...)
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_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1783:
The first of five strong earthquakes hit the region of Calabria in present-day southern Italy, killing more than 32,000 people over a period of nearly two months. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1783_Calabrian_earthquakes
1869:
Prospectors in Moliagul, Victoria, Australia, discovered the largest alluvial gold nugget ever found, known as the "Welcome Stranger". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welcome_Stranger
1941:
Second World War: British and Free French forces began the Battle of Keren to capture the strategic town of Keren in Italian Eritrea. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Keren
2000:
Second Chechen War: As the Battle of Grozny came to a close, Russian forces summarily executed at least 60 civilians in the city's Novye Aldi suburb. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novye_Aldi_massacre
2009:
The United States Navy guided missile cruiser USS Port Royal ran aground on a coral reef off the island of Oahu. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_USS_Port_Royal_grounding
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
inflicted insight (n): (psychology) Unsolicited revelation of aspects of one’s character, usually as a result of a deceitful experiment that has psychological dimensions, and especially where this results in emotional trauma and prolonged anxiety http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/inflicted_insight
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
For my part I believe in the forgiveness of sin and the redemption of ignorance. --Adlai Stevenson http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Adlai_Stevenson