Alonso is a crater in the southern hemisphere of Miranda, a moon of

Uranus Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. It is a gaseous cyan-coloured ice giant. Most of the planet is made of water, ammonia, and methane in a Supercritical fluid, supercritical phase of matter, which astronomy calls "ice" or Volatile ( ...

, located at 44° S, 352.6 ° E. It has a diameter of . The crater is named after Alonso, King of

Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

, one of the characters in

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

's ''

The Tempest ''The Tempest'' is a Shakespeare's plays, play by William Shakespeare, probably written in 1610–1611, and thought to be one of the last plays that he wrote alone. After the first scene, which takes place on a ship at sea during a tempest, th ...

''. The name Alonso was officially approved by the

International Astronomical Union The International Astronomical Union (IAU; , UAI) is an international non-governmental organization (INGO) with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreach, education, and developmen ...

(IAU) in 1988.

Geology and characteristics

Alonso is roughly 24–25 kilometers in diameter and contains a central mound roughly 14 kilometers in diameter. Many of Miranda's craters and other surface features were covered in a thick layer of surface material known as

regolith Regolith () is a blanket of unconsolidated, loose, heterogeneous superficial deposits covering solid rock. It includes dust, broken rocks, and other related materials and is present on Earth, the Moon, Mars, some asteroids, and other terrestria ...

after formation in a process called mantling. However, Alonso is relatively pristine and exposed, exhibiting minimal mantling. Assuming that the effects of mantling and

mass wasting Mass wasting, also known as mass movement, is a general term for the movement of rock (geology), rock or soil down slopes under the force of gravity. It differs from other processes of erosion in that the debris transported by mass wasting is no ...

processes (such as landslides) were minimal following Alonso's formation, planetary scientists C. B. Beddingfield and R. J. Cartwright calculating a regolith thickness of km for the region the crater formed in. This may represent the upper limit of regolith thickness on Miranda.

References

External links

* {{Moons of Uranus Impact craters on Uranus' moons Miranda (moon)