Uranus. Hubble Space Telescope image of the planet Uranus,showing its ring system and six of its moons. The bright moon at lower right is Ariel. Five other faint moons are seen around the rings. Clockwise from the top,they are: Desdemona,Belinda,Portia,Cressida and Puck. Uranus is the seventh major planet from the Sun,orbiting at just under 3 billion kilometres,some 20 times the Earth-Sun distance. The cloud bands and rings are parallel to its equator. Uranus has an axis of rotation in the same plane as its orbit,so it appears to rotate on its side,unlike the other planets. Images taken in August 2003 |