Moons of Uranus

Uranus’s five largest moons range from about 240 to 800 km (150 to

500 miles) in radius. All were discovered telescopically from Earth,
four of them before the 20th century (see below Observations from
Earth). Ten small inner moons were found by Voyager 2 in 1985–86.
They are estimated to be between about 10 and 80 km (6 and 50
miles) in radius, and they orbit the planet at distances between 49,800
and 86,000 km (31,000 and 53,500 miles). The innermost
moon, Cordelia, orbits just inside the outermost rings, Lambda and
Epsilon. An 11th tiny inner moon, Perdita, photographed by Voyager
near the orbit of Belinda, remained unnoticed in the images until 1999
and was not confirmed until 2003. Two additional inner moons—
Cupid, near Belinda’s orbit, and the other, Mab, near Puck’s—were
discovered in observations from Earth in 2003. All 18 of the above are
regular, having prograde, low-inclination, and low-eccentricity orbits
with respect to the planet.

moons of Uranus
Composite image of Uranus with its five major moons, captured by a camera aboard Voyager 2. The
moons, from largest to smallest as shown here, are Ariel, Miranda, Titania, Oberon, and Umbriel.
NASA/JPL
Nine small outer moons in roughly the same size range as the Voyager
finds were discovered from Earth beginning in 1997. These are
irregular satellites, having highly elliptical orbits that are inclined at
large angles to the planet’s equator; all but one also orbit in the
retrograde direction. Their mean distances from the planet lie between
4 million and 21 million km (2.5 million and 13 million miles), which
is 7–36 times the distance of the outermost known regular
moon, Oberon. The irregular moons likely were captured into orbits
around Uranus after the planet formed. The regular moons probably
formed in their equatorial orbits at the same time that the planet
formed. Properties of the known Uranian moons are summarized in
the table. Names and orbital and physical characteristics are listed
separately for the major moons and the 10 small inner moons
originally discovered by Voyager.

Moons of Uranus

mean
distanc orbital
inclinatio
e from period rotation mean
n of orbit
centre (siderea period radiu mass densit
nam to planet's eccentricit
of l (Earth s (1020 kg y
e equator y of orbit
Uranus period; days)** (km) ) (g/cm3
(degrees)*
(orbital Earth * )
*
radius; days)*
km)

*R following the quantity indicates a retrograde orbit.

**Inclination values in parentheses are relative to the ecliptic.