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Astronomy Picture of the Day - Miranda Revisited
NASA ^ | 9 Feb, 2026 | Image Credit: NASA, JPL, Voyager 2; Processing & License: Flickr: zelario12; Text: Keighley Rockclif

Posted on 02/09/2026 1:26:50 PM PST by MtnClimber

Explanation: What is Miranda really like? Visually, old images from NASA's Voyager 2 have been recently combined and remastered to result in the featured image of Uranus's 500-kilometer-wide moon. In the late 1980s, Voyager 2 flew by Uranus, coming close to the cratered, fractured, and unusually grooved moon -- named after a character from Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Scientifically, planetary scientists are using old data and clear images to theorize anew about what shaped Miranda's severe surface features. A leading hypothesis is that Miranda, beneath its icy surface, may have once hosted an expansive liquid water ocean which may be slowly freezing. Thanks to the legacy of Voyager 2, Miranda has joined the ranks of Europa, Titan, and other icy moons in the search for water, and, possibly, microbial life, in our Solar System.


TOPICS: Astronomy; Astronomy Picture of the Day; Science
KEYWORDS: apod; nasa

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For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then move the magnifying glass cursor then click to zoom in and click again to zoom out. When zoomed in you can scan by moving the side bars on the bottom and right side of the image.

1 posted on 02/09/2026 1:26:50 PM PST by MtnClimber
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To: MtnClimber

2 posted on 02/09/2026 1:27:08 PM PST by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery, wildlife and climbing, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: 21stCenturion; 21twelve; 4everontheRight; A Navy Vet; A_perfect_lady; abb; AFB-XYZ; AFPhys; ...
Pinging the APOD list

🪐 🌟 🌌 🍔

3 posted on 02/09/2026 1:27:48 PM PST by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery, wildlife and climbing, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: MtnClimber

That thing looks like it lost the fight.


4 posted on 02/09/2026 1:33:48 PM PST by ComputerGuy
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To: MtnClimber
She's not much of a looker, but I still wish Earth had more than one Moon! ;)

Here's a shot I took of one of our Full Moons this past year. Cannon Power Shot, nothing fancy.


5 posted on 02/09/2026 1:38:27 PM PST by Diana in Wisconsin (I don't have, 'Hobbies.' I'm developing a robust Post-Apocalyptic skill set.)
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To: MtnClimber
"the featured image of Uranus's 500-kilometer-wide moon."

the Memes write themselves.

Girl in a jacket

6 posted on 02/09/2026 2:02:12 PM PST by Macoozie (Roll MAGA, roll!)
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To: MtnClimber
"Miranda"


7 posted on 02/09/2026 2:20:18 PM PST by CopperTop (Outside the wire it's just us chickens. Dig?)
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To: MtnClimber

Wow.


8 posted on 02/09/2026 2:21:46 PM PST by No name given ( Anonymous is who you’ll know me as )
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To: CopperTop

9 posted on 02/09/2026 2:22:21 PM PST by dfwgator ("I am Charlie Kirk!")
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To: MtnClimber

The Sun has been sending microbial life out into space via the solar wind for a billion years. It would not be particularly shocking to find such life on the other planets and moons of the solar system. In fact, one would expect it.


10 posted on 02/09/2026 2:41:47 PM PST by Seruzawa ("The political left is the Garden of Eden of incompetence." -Marx the Smarter (Groucho.))
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To: MtnClimber

Uranus was quite boring when Voyager went by it. Because the planet is tilted almost 90 degrees something interesting happened. The pole pointed almost directly at the Sun! Half the planet in darkness for years and the other half lit up! This is a Hubble picture . Miranda was the most interesting thing about the fly by at the time. The theory was something big hit the moon busting it into pieces when then rejoined.

11 posted on 02/09/2026 3:02:10 PM PST by Nateman (Democrats did not strive for fraud friendly voting merely to continue honest elections.)
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To: Nateman

“The theory was something big hit the moon busting it into pieces when then rejoined.”

Yeah. Right. 🙄


12 posted on 02/09/2026 3:31:02 PM PST by MayflowerMadam ( "Trouble knocked at the door, but, hearing laughter, hurried away". - B. Franklin)
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To: Diana in Wisconsin

Nice


13 posted on 02/09/2026 5:08:09 PM PST by telescope115 (Ad Astra, Ad Deum…)
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