Uranus has 27 moons, all of which are named after characters from the works of Shakespeare and Alexander Pope. The five main satellites, in order of proximity to Uranus, are Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, and Oberon. Before the Voyager 2 studied Uranus in 1986, these five moons were the only ones known to exist.
Titania (Queen of the fairies in A Midsummer Night's Dream by Shakespeare) has a surface remarkably similar to that of Ariel. Covered in craters and interconnected valleys like Ariel, Titania is 35% larger than Ariel and is the largest of the known satellites orbiting Uranus. One of the most notable features is a trench that extends for over 1000 miles. It is thought that the satellite was once hot and the valleys and trenches are the result of the planet freezing and expanding.
Science On a Sphere
