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Description
Miranda closest approach in approx. 20 minutes.

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Miranda is the smallest Uranus' five big moons and by far the most interesting. As you can see, Miranda is very irregular and has large canyons running across its surface. One theory, the most supported, is that Miranda was blown apart during the Late Heavy Bombardment and that somehow the pieces came back together, and that these canyons are the scars.

That same bombardment might have knocked Uranus on its side. Its axis is tilted about 90°, so that its looks more like a rolling blue football. Miranda may be the smallest of the five, but even the biggest, Titania (fourth in the row), is two thirds the size of Pluto. There is no intermediate between Titania (1500 km) and Triton (2750 km).

Computer animation.

Description
Miranda closest approach in approx. 20 minutes.

----------

Miranda is the smallest Uranus' five big moons and by far the most interesting. As you can see, Miranda is very irregular and has large canyons running across its surface. One theory, the most supported, is that Miranda was blown apart during the Late Heavy Bombardment and that somehow the pieces came back together, and that these canyons are the scars.

That same bombardment might have knocked Uranus on its side. Its axis is tilted about 90°, so that its looks more like a rolling blue football. Miranda may be the smallest of the five, but even the biggest, Titania (fourth in the row), is two thirds the size of Pluto. There is no intermediate between Titania (1500 km) and Triton (2750 km).

Computer animation.