11 January: Titania, Moon of Uranus

On this date in 1787 Titania, a moon of Uranus, was discovered by William Herschel. 10 things you might not know about Titania.

1. Titania is the eighth largest moon in the Solar System, and the largest of the moons of Uranus.
2. Titania is named for the Queen of the Fairies in Shakespeare's play, A Midsummer Night's Dream, as are all Uranus's satellites. The name is actually Greek, and means "Daughter of the Titans."
3. It takes about 8.7 days for Titania to orbit Uranus.
4. Surface features on Titania are named after female characters from Shakespeare. The largest known crater is called Gertrude, after Hamlet's mother. Others are called Adriana, Jessica, Ursula, Imogen and Katharine. Titania has relatively few craters.
5. The largest canyon is called Messina Chasma (after a place in Shakespeare's play, Much Ado About Nothing) and it is 1,492km/927 miles long, stretching from the equator almost to the south pole. In comparison, the Grand Canyon is 446km/277 miles in length. Like most of Titania's canyons. it's thought to be a crack in the moon's crust caused by freezing soon after the moon was formed.
6. Carbon dioxide has been detected on the moon's surface, and it's thought if it has an atmosphere, this is likely to be made up of carbon dioxide as well. Titania's weak gravity means that gases like nitrogen and methane are unlikely to be present because they'd float off into space. The moon itself is thought to be composed of rock and ice.
7. There are photographs of about 40% of Titania's surface, taken by the Voyager 2 probe as it flew past in 1986. The northern hemisphere of Titania was pointing away from the sun at the time and so the pictures are of the southern hemisphere. No further missions to Titania are planned.
8. Seasons on Titania last 42 years.
9. Titania is one of the moons mentioned in Pink Floyd's track, Astronomy Domine from their album Piper at the Gates of Dawn.
10. In fiction, Kim Stanley Robinson's Blue Mars features a colony on Titania, populated by humans who had adapted to the low light and gravity. In Earth 2160 it is the site of a military prison, and in the TV series Expanse, it is the furthest outpost of humanity.

NEW!

A Tale of Two Sisters

During a battle with supervillains, a horrific accident leaves the Warner family with no option but to believe their youngest daughter, Jessica, is dead. It doesn't occur to them that the bad guys could, or would, save her.

Jessica wakes up with no memory of who she is or how she came to be on a space station with two bionic legs, a bionic arm and a bionic eye. She is told her family abandoned her and is sent back to Earth with a mission - to kill them. While Jessica wants to kill her family, along with the twin boys who once rejected her, she knows what the Alliance of Supervillains are asking her to do is a suicide mission. She decides to get her revenge in her own way.

As Jessica puts the first part of her revenge plan in motion, she finds herself with an agonising decision to make. Before she can decide, the Alliance come for her, determined to make her do their bidding. This time, it's the Alliance who leave her, crippled and at the mercy of the Warner family, who have no idea who the Alliance's Black Rose really is.

Jessica finds herself having to re-think her decisions in light of what she now learns about her family, the Alliance, the twins, and herself. It would appear the Alliance have left her with an unwanted and permanent reminder of her time with them. Or have they?

Jessica's older sister, Jill, knows her destiny is to be a doctor and specialise in bionics and genetic variant medicine. She is also hopelessly in love with Christopher, Crown Prince of Galorvia. Can their romance survive the lies Christopher told her when they were both at school, an unplanned pregnancy and Sophie, the wannabe princess who comes between them?

Available on Amazon
Paperback

E-book