Space · Moons
Oberon
A moon of Uranus — The second-largest Uranian moon — heavily cratered with mysterious dark crater floors.
Quick facts
Parent planet
Diameter (mean)
1523 km
Mass
3.08 × 10²¹ kg
0.0419 Moon masses
Mean orbital radius
583,520 km
Orbital period
13.46 Earth days
Discovery year
1787
Discoverer
William Herschel
Naming origin
King of the Fairies in A Midsummer Night's Dream
Surface conditions
Oberon is the outermost of Uranus's five major moons, heavily cratered with a darker overall albedo than Titania. Several large craters have dark floor materials of unknown composition. A 6-km-tall mountain rises near the limb in Voyager 2 images — among the tallest known peaks on a moon of similar size.
Missions and observations
Every Uranus-system mission has had an opportunity to image or characterize Oberon. The list below is the Uranus-system mission catalog; specific Oberon encounters are documented in mission archives.
| Mission | Year at Uranus | Status |
|---|---|---|
|
Voyager 2 NASA |
1986 | Completed |
Naming etymology
Oberon was the King of the Fairies in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, husband of Titania. John Herschel named both moons in 1852.
Methodology & sources
Diameter, mass, and orbital parameters from JPL Solar System Dynamics — Physical Parameters. Discovery year and discoverer from the JPL Satellite Discovery Circumstances. Naming etymology from the IAU Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature. Agent-matched moon pages use the matching Mungomash team avatar in the hero; non-agent moons are text-only.