2-701-540 - Heritage Space/Heritage Images

Miranda, one of the moons of Uranus, seen from Voyager 2, 24 January 1986. High-resolution image of Miranda, also designated Uranus V, the smallest and innermost of Uranus' five moons, taken from the Voyager unmanned spacecraft from a distance of approximately 31,000 kilometers (19,000 miles), shortly before the spacecraft's closest approach to the Uranian moon. The high resolution of 600 meters (2,000 feet) reveals fractures, grooves and craters, as well as features of different albedos (reflectancea). This view encompasses areas of older, heavily cratered terrain with a wide variety of forms. The grooves and troughs reach depths of a few kilometers (or miles) and expose materials of different albedos. The great variety of directions of fractures and troughs, and the different densities of impact craters on them, signify a long, complex geologic evolution of this satellite.