Uranus Moons

Uranus has 27 moons that we know of. Five of the moons are large and the rest are much smaller. The five large moons are called Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, and Oberon. Titania is the largest moon of Uranus and it is covered with small craters, a few large craters, and very rough rocks. Ariel is the brightest moon of Uranus and has canyons and valleys as well as a lot of craters. Umbriel is very dark. Umbriel and Oberon have old heavily cratered surfaces. Miranda has a very unique surface. It has huge canyons as deep as 12 miles, terraced layers and a mix of young and old surfaces.

Miranda

• Miranda, also designated Uranus V, is the smallest and innermost of Uranus's five round satellites. It was discovered by Gerard Kuiper on 16 February 1948 at McDonald Observatory in Texas, and named after Miranda from William Shakespeare's play The Tempest.

Ariel

• Ariel is the fourth-largest of the 27 known moons of Uranus. Ariel orbits and rotates in the equatorial plane of Uranus, which is almost perpendicular to the orbit of Uranus and so has an extreme seasonal cycle.

Umbriel

• Umbriel is a moon of Uranus discovered on October 24, 1851, by William Lassell. It was discovered at the same time as Ariel and named after a character in Alexander Pope's poem The Rape of the Lock.

Titania

• Titania, also designated Uranus III, is the largest of the moons of Uranus and the eighth largest moon in the Solar System at a diameter of 1,578 kilometres. Discovered by William Herschel in 1787, Titania is named after the queen of the fairies in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Oberon

• Oberon, also designated Uranus IV, is the outermost major moon of the planet Uranus. It is the second-largest and second most massive of the Uranian moons, and the ninth most massive moon in the Solar System.