Local orbit radius
\[r=\frac{a(1-e^2)}{1+e\cos(\nu)}\]
Each tracked moon follows the same conic equation used for planetary orbits, with the parent planet as the focus.
Uranus moon system🔭 Telescope picks →
Uranus moons in motion.
Uranus has inner ring moons, five classical large moons, and outer irregular moons orbiting a planet tipped on its side.
Uranus selected
- parent distance
- Sun distance AU
- speed
- period
- position
1.00x Earth view- from Sun - - disk - - light
Moon simulator is initializing. Drag to rotate, wheel to zoom, right-drag to pan.
Gear guide
Recommended Telescope for Viewing Uranus
Uranus's five classical moons are faint targets that need a larger aperture and dark skies, but Uranus itself is an easy pale blue-green disc in a mid-size scope.
Celestron NexStar 5SE — GoTo mount locates Uranus without star-hoppingCelestron StarSense Explorer DX 130AZ — app-guided finding for a faint, distant targetCelestron Astro Fi 102 — portable option for dark-sky trips
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Buyer tips
What matters for this system
- Dark, moonless skies matter more than aperture for a faint, distant planet like Uranus.
- GoTo tracking helps since Uranus shows no visible detail to star-hop toward.
- The classical moons (Titania, Oberon and others) generally need 8-inch+ aperture and very dark skies.
Simulation basis
Mean orbit model
Major moons use mean elements; the system is displayed in a Uranus-relative teaching frame.
Controls
Use the model
Drag rotates the scene, wheel zooms, right-drag pans, and the Full screen button expands the simulator. The time-rate selector can run from realtime seconds to one year per second.
The selected moon panel reports parent-relative distance, approximate Sun distance in AU, orbital speed, period, and current model angle.
Tracked moons
Interactive orbit data
These bodies have individual orbit tracks and selectable readouts in the simulator.
| Moon | Study note | Radius | Mean parent distance | Eccentricity | Period | Mean speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Puck | Largest of Uranus's inner moons. | 81 km | 86,000 km | 0.0001 | 0.761 days | 8.22 km/s |
| Mab | Small inner moon associated with the Mu ring. | 12 km | 97,736 km | 0.0025 | 0.923 days | 7.72 km/s |
| Miranda | Small classical moon with extreme coronae, cliffs, and disrupted terrain. | 235.8 km | 129,390 km | 0.0013 | 1.413 days | 6.66 km/s |
| Ariel | Bright Uranian moon with canyons and evidence of resurfacing. | 578.9 km | 191,020 km | 0.0012 | 2.52 days | 5.51 km/s |
| Umbriel | Darker classical moon preserving older cratered terrain. | 584.7 km | 266,300 km | 0.0039 | 4.144 days | 4.67 km/s |
| Titania | Largest Uranian moon with long fault valleys and tectonic structures. | 788.9 km | 435,910 km | 0.0011 | 8.706 days | 3.64 km/s |
| Oberon | Outer classical Uranian moon with dark crater floors. | 761.4 km | 583,520 km | 0.0014 | 13.463 days | 3.15 km/s |
| Sycorax | Large distant retrograde irregular moon. | 75 km | 12,217,900 km | 0.52 | 1288.38 days | 0.69 km/s |
Catalog coverage
Recorded names and groups
Cordelia, Ophelia, Bianca, Cressida, Desdemona, Juliet, Portia, Rosalind, Cupid, Belinda, Perdita, Puck, Mab, Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, Oberon, Francisco, Caliban, Stephano, Trinculo, Sycorax, Margaret, Prospero, Setebos, Ferdinand, S/2023 U 1, S/2025 U 1
Dense irregular and provisional moon populations are represented as catalog shell markers when compact per-moon orbital elements are not bundled into this static site. Counts are preserved so the system scale remains visible without overloading the browser.
Mathematical model
Natural-satellite orbital model
Moon-system simulations use local two-body approximations around the parent planet. The layout is computed from orbital periods, eccentricities, inclinations, and mean distances rather than from a reference image.
Period consistency
\[n=\frac{2\pi}{P}\]
Mean motion n is derived from orbital period P. The animation phase is therefore tied to the catalog period and remains internally consistent.
Inclined orbit plane
\[\mathbf{r}_{\mathrm{scene}}=R_x(i)\,\mathbf{r}_{\mathrm{orbit}}\]
Inclination i rotates the moon's local orbital plane. This proves the visible path is a transform of the mathematical orbit, not a freehand ring.
Verification standard: the rendered object must be reproducible from stated equations, catalog parameters, or explicit geometric transforms. Visual reference images may inform presentation only; they are not the source of orbital positions, field vectors, accretion-disk gradients, timing, or engineering layout.
Limitations: browser scenes may use bounded scale, compressed distances, simplified two-body dynamics, schematic transfer curves, or educational approximations where full numerical ephemerides, CFD, finite-element models, or general-relativistic ray tracing are outside the page scope. Those simplifications are part of the model contract, not hidden image-based construction.