Trinculo, Ferdinand and Francisco Were Discovered Aug. 13, 2001

Summary: Trinculo, Ferdinand and Francisco were discovered Aug. 13, 2001, as the sixth, seventh and eighth irregular satellites of Uranus.

Discoveries of S/2001 U 1, S/2001 U 2 and S/2001 U 3 were made via the 4-meter Victor M. Blanco Telescope (right) at northern Chile’s Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory; Saturday, July 24, 2004, 11:56: David walker at English Wikipedia, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons

Trinculo, Ferdinand and Francisco were discovered Aug. 13, 2001, as the sixth, seventh and eighth irregular satellites in the Uranian system.

The discoveries of S/2001 U 1, S/2001 U 2 and S/2001 U 3 were made Aug. 13, 2001, with the 4-meter Victor M. Blanco Telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) in northern Chile. The complex of astronomical telescopes and instruments is part of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO), the national center for ground-based nighttime astronomy in the United States.

Brian G. (Geoffrey) Marsden, director of the Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams (CBAT), announced the discovery of S/2001 U 1 in International Astronomical Union Circular (IAUC) No. 7980, dated Sept. 30, 2002. He credited the irregular satellite’s detection to M. (Matthew) Holman of Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) in Cambridge, Massachusetts; J.J. (John J. “JJ”) Kavelaars of Dominion Astrophysical Observatory in Saanich, British Columbia, Canada; and D. (Dan) Milisavljevic of McMaster University of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

Daniel W.E. Green, Marsden’s successor as CBAT director, announced the discovery of S/2001 U 2 in IAUC 8213, dated Oct. 1, 2003. The announcement identified the satellite candidate’s discoverers as teams headed by Matthew Holman of Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) and Brett Gladman of Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur (OCA) in Nice, France. The discovery teams made an additional observation of S/2001 U 2 on Sept. 21, 2001, via Palomar Observatory’s 5.1-meter 200-inch) Hale Telescope in San Diego County, southwestern California.

IAUC 8213 reported that the satellite eluded detection, however, until Brian Marsden’s Sept. 24, 2003, identification of S/2001 U 2 with a satellite candidate observed in 2003 by S.S. (Scott Sander) Sheppard. Sheppard’s observation occurred via images obtained Aug. 29 and Aug. 30, 2003, by Sheppard and D.C. (David Clifford) Jewitt via the Subaru 8.2-meter (320-inch) reflector telescope at the Mauna Kea Observatories (MKO) on the Big Island of Hawai’i.

Green announced the discovery of S/2001 U 3 in IAUC 8216, dated Oct. 7, 2003. Detection of the satellite candidate was credited to Holman, Gladman and their collaborators.

IAUC 8177, dated Aug. 8, 2003, reported the approval of a permanent designation and a permanent name for irregular satellite S/2001 U 1 by the IAU Working Group on Planetary System Nomenclature (WGPSN). The satellite’s permanent designation of Uranus XXI reflects its status as the 21st discovered Uranian satellite. The irregular’s permanent name of Trinculo conforms with the convention of naming Uranian satellites after characters in plays by Elizabethan playwright William Shakespeare (bapt. April 26, 1564-April 23, 1616) or in “Rape of the Lock” by 18th-century English poet Alexander Pope (May 21, 1688-May 30, 1744). Trinculo, the jester of the King of Naples in “The Tempest,” inspired the satellite’s permanent name.

IAUC 8648, dated Dec. 29, 2005, reported the approval of a permanent designation and a permanent name for irregular satellite S/2001 U 3 by the IAU Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature. The permanent designation of Uranus XXII for S/2001 U 3 reflects the satellite’s position as the 22nd discovered Uranian satellite. S/2001 U 3 has the permanent name of Francisco after a lord in the suite of Alonso, King of Naples, in “The Tempest.”

IAUC 8648 also reported that the IAU Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature had approved a permanent designation and permanent name for irregular satellite S/2001 U 2. The permanent designation of Uranus XXIV for S/2001 U 2 reflects the satellite’s position as the 24th discovered Uranian satellite. S/2001 U 2 has the permanent name of Ferdinand after the son of Alonso, King of Naples, in “The Tempest.”

The takeaways from the Aug. 13, 2001, discoveries of Trinculo, Ferdinand and Francisco as the sixth, seventh and eighth Uranian irregular satellites are that the discoveries were made via the 4-meter Victor M. Blanco Telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) in northern Chile and that Trinculo (S/2001 U 1), Francisco (S/2001 U 3) and Ferdinand (S/2001 U 2) have respective permanent designations of Uranus XXI, Uranus XXII and Uranus XXIV that reflect their positions as the 21st, 22nd and 24th discovered Uranian satellites.

After its Aug. 13, 2001, discovery, Ferdinand (S/2001 U 2) was independently rediscovered via the Subaru Telescope at Mauna Kea Observatories (MKO), Big Island of Hawai’I; Friday, June 15, 2007, 12:25: Denys, CC BY 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Discoveries of S/2001 U 1, S/2001 U 2 and S/2001 U 3 were made via the 4-meter Victor M. Blanco Telescope (right) at northern Chile’s Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory; Saturday, July 24, 2004, 11:56: David walker at English Wikipedia, CC BY SA 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tololo_a.JPG

After its Aug. 13, 2001, discovery, Ferdinand (S/2001 U 2) was independently rediscovered via the Subaru Telescope at Mauna Kea Observatories (MKO), Big Island of Hawai’I; Friday, June 15, 2007, 12:25: Denys, CC BY 3.0 Unported, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MaunaKea_Subaru.jpg

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