Umbriel (moon) - Discovery and Name

Discovery and Name

Umbriel, along with another Uranian satellite, Ariel, was discovered by William Lassell on October 24, 1851. Although William Herschel, the discoverer of Titania and Oberon, claimed at the end of the 18th century that he had observed four additional moons of Uranus, his observations were not confirmed and those four objects are now thought to be spurious.

All of Uranus's moons are named after characters created by William Shakespeare or Alexander Pope. The names of all four satellites of Uranus then known were suggested by John Herschel in 1852 at the request of Lassell. Umbriel is the 'dusky melancholy sprite' in Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock, and the name suggests the Latin umbra, meaning shadow. The moon is also designated Uranus II.