24 October: Ariel, moon of Uranus

William Lassell discovered Ariel, a moon of Uranus, on this date in 1851.

1. Ariel is the fourth largest of the 27 moons of Uranus.
2. Ariel's equator measures 3637.3km and its surface area is 4,211,307.6 square km.
3. At an orbiting distance of about 190,000km, Ariel is the second closest moon to the planet. Its orbit takes about two and a half days.
4. Ariel is tilted almost horizontally so that its poles directly face the sun, or away from the Sun, at the solstices. This means it has more extreme seasons than the poles on Earth. The North and South poles on Earth are in permanent darkness or light for a few weeks around the solstices; the periods of permanent light or darkness on Ariel last 42 years.
5. Ariel is named after a character in Alexander Pope's poem, The Rape of the Lock. Ariel is the leader of the sylphs. Moons of Uranus are either named after characters in that poem, or characters from Shakespeare plays. Ariel is both - she's also the spirit who serves Prospero in The Tempest.
6. No space craft has ever been there. The information we have was all gained from a flyby by Voyager 2 in 1986 when photographs were taken from 127,000km/79,000 miles away. Because some of the moon was in darkness at the time, only about 35% of the surface was photographed with sufficient quality to make out surface features.
7. Ariel is thought to be made up of ice and silicate rock. Scientists have also detected carbon dioxide there.
8. The surface of Ariel doesn't have many large craters, but a lot of small ones. Scientists believe there were larger ones once, but they were obliterated by more recent, smaller collisions. This pattern has suggested to scientists that it is the youngest of the planet's moons.
9. There is also a network of valleys criss-crossing Ariel's surface, similar to the ones found on Mars. Some of them are 10km/six miles deep.The floors of the valleys are smooth, suggesting they were carved out by liquid. Not water, as it's far too cold there for liquid Water. Scientists believe the valleys were carved out by liquid methane, ammonia or carbon monoxide.
10. Ariel is the brightest and most reflective of all the moons of Uranus.

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Terry Kennedy is inexplicably and inexorably drawn to the small town of Fiveswood as a place to live and work after university. He is sure he has never visited the town before, but when he arrives there, it seems oddly familiar.

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