1,523 km
DIAMETER
13.46 DAYS
ORBITAL PERIOD
583,500 km
FROM URANUS
1787
DISCOVERED
13.46 DAYS
ROTATION PERIOD
#2
LARGEST URANUS MOON
THE OUTER MOON
Oberon is the second-largest moon of
Uranus and the outermost of the planet's
five major moons.
It was discovered in 1787 by William
Herschel, on the same night that he
discovered Titania.
Voyager 2 photographed Oberon during
its 1986 encounter with Uranus.
The images revealed a very old and
heavily cratered surface.
Several enormous impact craters can
be seen across Oberon's icy terrain.
Oberon is composed primarily of water
ice mixed with rocky material.
OBERON FEATURES
HAMLET CRATER
Hamlet is one of Oberon's largest
impact craters, measuring about
206 kilometres across.
BRIGHT DEPOSITS
Some crater floors contain unusually
bright material that contrasts with
the dark surface.
ANCIENT SURFACE
Oberon's heavily cratered terrain
preserves evidence of impacts from
the distant past.
DID YOU KNOW?
Oberon is the
outermost of Uranus'
five major moons
and was photographed in detail
by Voyager 2 in 1986.
AN OLD WORLD AT THE EDGE OF THE MAJOR MOONS
Oberon is the outermost of Uranus's five major moons and has a heavily cratered icy surface. Some craters expose bright material, while large fractures show that the crust also experienced tectonic deformation.
Because Voyager 2 provided the only close spacecraft observations of the Uranian moons, much of Oberon's geology and interior remains poorly constrained compared with better-explored moons of Jupiter and Saturn.
IMAGE:
NASA / JPL / VOYAGER 2
IMAGE SOURCE: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
IMAGE SOURCE: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS