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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<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titania_%28moon%29>
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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>
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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>
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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>
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