Universe & space

Discovery of Belinda

13 January 1986

Belinda is an inner moon of Uranus, about 90 kilometres across, discovered in January 1986 in images from the Voyager 2 spacecraft and credited to Stephen Synnott. It orbits close to the planet's rings and is one of the group of small, closely spaced inner moons. Unlike most Uranian moons, which take their names from Shakespeare's plays, Belinda is named after the heroine of Alexander Pope's poem The Rape of the Lock. Very little is known about the moon beyond its size and orbit, because the only spacecraft to have visited Uranus is Voyager 2, and it is too small and faint to be studied in detail from Earth.

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