Discovery of Margaret

Margaret is an irregular moon of Uranus, found by Scott Sheppard and David Jewitt in a survey for faint outer satellites using a large telescope in Hawaii. It is unusual because it is the only known irregular moon of Uranus that orbits in the same direction as the planet's rotation, while its relatives travel backwards. Its orbit is also strongly elongated, bringing it much closer to Uranus at one end than at the other. It is named after a gentlewoman in Shakespeare's comedy Much Ado About Nothing, a departure from the other outer moons named after characters in The Tempest. Its unusual orbit suggests it has a separate origin from the retrograde group.

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