Ariel revolves around Uranus at a mean distance of 191,240 km (118,830 miles) from the centre of the planet, taking 2.52 days to complete one orbit. Like the other large Uranian moons, Ariel rotates synchronously with its orbital period, keeping the same face toward the planet and the same face forward in its orbit. The moon's mean diameter is about 1,160 km (720 miles). Its density of about 1.67 grams per cubic cm is consistent with a composition of roughly equal parts water ice and rock, perhaps intermixed with a small amount of frozen methane.

Photographs taken by the U.S. Voyager 2 spacecraft during its flyby of the Uranian system in 1986 show that Ariel's surface is crisscrossed with scarps and long valleylike formations. Some of the latter are partially filled with materials that may have upwelled from the moon's interior as a result of tectonic activity in the past. In a few cases, ice appears to have spread out from the valleys across broad plains, much like glacier flows on Earth. These features and the paucity of large impact craters suggest that Ariel has the youngest surface of all of Uranus's major moons.

the first international cooperative Earth satellite, launched April 26, 1962, as a joint project of agencies of the United States and the United Kingdom. Design, construction, telemetry, and launching of the 14.5-kilogram (32-lb) satellite was handled in the United States by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The United Kingdom was responsible for designing the equipment and the experiments to measure electron density and temperature and composition of positive ions, intensity of solar radiation in ultraviolet Lyman-alpha line, and cosmic rays.