Editing Miranda (moon) (section)

== Discovery and name ==
[[File:Kuiper_colored.jpg|left|thumb|upright|Gerard P. Kuiper, discoverer of Miranda]]
Miranda was discovered on 16 February 1948 by planetary astronomer [[Gerard Kuiper]] using the McDonald Observatory's {{convert|82|in|adj=on|-1}} [[Otto Struve Telescope]].{{sfn|Kuiper|1949}}{{sfn|Otto|2014}} Its motion around Uranus was confirmed on 1 March 1948.{{sfn|Kuiper|1949}} It was the first satellite of Uranus discovered in nearly 100 years. Kuiper elected to name the object "Miranda" after the [[Miranda (The Tempest)|character]] in [[Shakespeare]]'s ''[[The Tempest]]'', because the four previously discovered moons of Uranus, [[Ariel (moon)|Ariel]], [[Umbriel]], [[Titania (moon)|Titania]], and [[Oberon (moon)|Oberon]], had all been named after characters of Shakespeare or [[Alexander Pope]]. However, the previous moons had been named specifically after fairies,{{sfn|Barton|1946}} whereas Miranda was a human. Subsequently discovered satellites of Uranus were named after characters from Shakespeare and Pope, whether fairies or not. The moon is also designated Uranus V.

Planetary moons other than Earth's were never given symbols in the astronomical literature. Denis Moskowitz, a software engineer who designed most of the [[dwarf planet]] symbols, proposed an M (the initial of Miranda) combined with the low globe of [[Jérôme Lalande]]'s Uranus symbol as the symbol of Miranda ([[File:Miranda symbol (fixed width).svg|16px]]). This symbol is not widely used.<ref name=moons>{{cite web |url=https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2025/25079-phobos-and-deimos.pdf |title=Phobos and Deimos symbols |last1=Bala |first1=Gavin Jared |last2=Miller |first2=Kirk |date=7 March 2025 |website=unicode.org |publisher=The Unicode Consortium |access-date=14 March 2025 |quote=}}</ref>