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In 1847, the seven then known moons of Saturn were named by John Herschel. Herschel named Saturn's two innermost moons (Mimas and Enceladus) after the mythological Greek Giants, and the outer five after the Titans (Titan, Iapetus) and Titanesses (Tethys, Dione, Rhea) of the same mythology.
The names, originally spelled Phobus and Deimus, respectively, were suggested by Henry Madan (1838–1901), Science Master of Eton, from Book XV of the Iliad, where Ares summons Fear and Fright. [23] The granddaughter of Henry Madan's brother Falconer Madan was Venetia Burney, who first suggested the name of Pluto.
The Galilean moons are named after Galileo Galilei, who observed them in either December 1609 or January 1610, and recognized them as satellites of Jupiter in March 1610; [2] they remained the only known moons of Jupiter until the discovery of the fifth largest moon of Jupiter Amalthea in 1892. [3]
[18] [40] When in the 20th century the names of Titans were exhausted, the moons were named after different characters of the Greco-Roman mythology or giants from other mythologies. [41] All the irregular moons (except Phoebe, discovered about a century before the others) are named after Inuit, and Gallic gods, and after Norse ice giants. [42]
The three moons were announced on February 23 by the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center. ... so the planet’s moons are named after lesser sea gods and nymphs.
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The outer retrograde moons are all named after characters from one play, The Tempest; the sole known outer prograde moon, Margaret, is named from Much Ado About Nothing. [ 19 ] Some asteroids , also named after the same Shakespearean characters, share names with moons of Uranus: 171 Ophelia , 218 Bianca , 593 Titania , 666 Desdemona , 763 ...
The new discovery increases the moons orbiting the "jewel of our solar system" to 82, surpassing Jupiter