Discovery of Prospero

Prospero is an irregular moon of Uranus, discovered by Brett Gladman and colleagues using a large ground-based telescope. It orbits Uranus at a considerable distance on a retrograde path, running against the planet's spin, which marks it as a captured object rather than a body formed in place. Together with Stephano, Setebos, Caliban and Sycorax it forms part of a loose population of outer moons that may be debris from the collisional breakup of larger captured bodies. It is named after Prospero, the exiled Duke of Milan and magician who is the central character of Shakespeare's The Tempest. It is dim and small, known only through telescopic observations.

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