Key facts
- Scale fact
- 1,160 kmmean diameter
- Composition
- Water ice, silicate rock and surface carbon dioxide
Ariel
1,160 kmmean diameter
Visual creditVoyager 2 1986 / NASA / JPL-Caltech / Kevin M. Gill / CC BY 2.0Source: Wikimedia Commons
Details
Ariel is one of Uranus' major moons and appears to have the youngest surface among them. Voyager 2 revealed fault-bounded valleys and bright terrain that hint at past internal heating and resurfacing on a distant icy moon.
Voyager 2 saw only part of Ariel, but that hemisphere has fewer large craters and more fault-bounded valleys than the older-looking surfaces of several other Uranian moons. The terrain supports past tectonic activity and resurfacing, while carbon dioxide detected at the surface adds a compositional clue. Models published since Voyager also allow a buried ocean, but no spacecraft has tested that prediction in place.
Links
- Universe journey
- Solar System
- Wikipedia
- Ariel on Wikipedia
Size neighbors
Objects near Ariel on the scale
Sources
References for Ariel
Measurements and descriptive context are compiled by the Scale of Space team from the references below. If you find an error, please let us know.
- Ariel — Wikipedia
- Visual reference: Wikimedia Commons (Voyager 2 1986 / NASA / JPL-Caltech / Kevin M. Gill, CC BY 2.0)
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About
Scale of Space is a scroll-based journey through the universe, placing objects on a single logarithmic scale so you can compare size across an unbroken range.
Guides explain selected parts of that range, while focused views filter the objects by subject.