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A Journey to the End of Time

The Solar System in 3D, in real time

A simulation of the Solar System driven by real ephemerides. The Sun, the planets, Pluto and the major moons, space probes, the International Space Station, nearby stars and the black hole at the centre of the Milky Way are where they really are at the chosen moment. You can run time from 1700 to 2100, fly from one object to another and look at the sky from anywhere on Earth.

Ariel

Moon of Uranus

Facts

Mean diameter
1158 km
Mean distance from the planet
190,900 km
Orbital period
2.52 days
Discovery
William Lassell, 1851

Ariel, among the five major moons of Uranus, has the brightest and, it seems, the youngest surface. It is criss-crossed by graben, valleys bounded by faults, and carbon dioxide has been detected on its surface.

It was discovered in 1851 by William Lassell, an English amateur astronomer who paid for his telescopes with the profits of his brewery. The name is that of a character in Shakespeare's The Tempest and in Pope's The Rape of the Lock.

Sources