Ariel Moon Facts for Kids

A Picture of the moon Ariel
  • Moon Name: Ariel
  • Designation: Uranus I
  • Date Discovered: October 24th, 1851
  • Discovered by: William Lassell
  • Average Orbit of Uranus: 118,619.76 mi
  • Total Volume: 194,963,181.07 mi3
  • Surface Area: 1,625,994.95 mi2

18 Ariel Moon Facts for Kids

  1. Ariel is one of the 27 known moons of the planet Uranus.
  2. Ariel is named after a sky spirit in Shakespeare’s The Tempest and Alexander Pope’s The Rape of the Lock.
  3. Ariel is also designated as Uranus I.
  4. Ariel was discovered on October 24th, 1851 by English merchant and astronomer William Lassell.
  5. Ariel was discovered on the same day as Umbriel, another moon orbiting Uranus.
  6. The average orbit distance for Ariel is 118,619.76 mi.
  7. The total surface area of Ariel is 1,625,994.95 mi2.
  8. The total volume of Ariel is 194,963,181.07 mi3.
  9. Ariel completes an orbit around Uranus every 2.52 days.
  10. Ariel is one of the five major moons of Uranus.
  11. Ariel is the second smallest of the five major moons of Uranus.
  12. Ariel is the fourth largest moon out of all 27 known moons orbiting Uranus.
  13. Ariel is the most reflective moon out of all 27 known moons orbiting Uranus.
  14. Ariel is the smallest of all 19 known spherical moons in our Solar System.
  15. The longest canyon on Ariel is about 385 miles long and is known as Kachina Chasma.
  16. The largest crater on Ariel is about 48 miles wide and is known as Yangoor.
  17. Transits of Ariel on Uranus were capture on July 26th, 2006 by the Hubble Space Telescope and in 2008 by the European Southern Observatory.
  18. The vast majority of what we know about Ariel came from the Voyager 2 flyby of Uranus in 1986.

Additional Resources on Uranus’s moon Ariel

  • Learn About Ariel – Learn about Ariel, one of Uranus’s moons on the NASA Solar System Exploration website.
  • Ariel Moon Stats and Data – Find the latest stats and data for the natural satellite Ariel on the NASA Solar System Exploration website.
  • The Moons of Uranus – Discover more of the moons orbiting Uranus on the Britannica website.
  • Ariel (Moon) – Wikipedia – Read more about Ariel, a moon of Uranus, on the Wikipedia website.

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