Perdita (moon)

Perdita is a small, inner satellite of Uranus. It was discovered on images taken by the Voyager 2 spacecraft on 18 May 1986, but wasn't confirmed until 1999 when Erich Karkosch re-examined the Voyager 2 images. It was given the provisional designation S/1986 U 10.

Perdita is named after the daughter of Leontes and Hermione in William Shakespeare's play The Winter's Tale.

Perdita orbits Uranus at a distance of about 76,420 km. It is very small, with an estimated diameter of about 30 km. Its surface is dark and likely heavily cratered.

It belongs to the Portia group of satellites, which also includes Bianca, Cressida, Desdemona, Juliet, Rosalind, Cupid, Belinda, and Portia itself. These moons have similar orbits and photometric properties.

Because Perdita is so small and faint, very little is known about its composition or other physical characteristics. Its orbit is also not known with high precision. Observations from the Hubble Space Telescope have been used to refine its orbital parameters.

The name Perdita was officially approved by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) in 1999.