Oberon
Uranus IV
Oberon Facts
- Oberon is the outermost of Uranus's known satellites
and second largest:
- distance from Uranus: 583,420 km
- diameter: 1523 km
- mass: 3.03e21 kg
- Pronounced "OH buh ron".
- Oberon is the King of the Fairies and husband of Titania in Shakespeare's Midsummer-Night's Dream.
- Discovered by Herschel in 1787.
- Oberon and Umbriel appear quite similar though Oberon
is 35% larger. All of Uranus's large moons are a mixture of about
40-50% water ice with the rest rock, a somewhat larger fraction of rock than
Saturn's large moons such as
Rhea.
- Oberon's heavily cratered surface has probably been stable since its
formation. It has far more and larger craters than do
Ariel and Titania.
Some of the craters have rays of ejecta similar to those seen on
Callisto.
- Some of the crater floors are dark, perhaps covered with darker material (dirty
water?) that upwelled into the crater.
- Large faults are also seen across the entire southern hemisphere of Oberon. This
indicates some geologic activity early in Oberon's history.
- The picture above shows a mountain on the limb
that rises 6 km above its surrounds.
Pictures
- (above)
167k gif;
12k jpg;
- Oberon: color large low res
60k jpg
More about Oberon
Open Issues
- Why have Oberon and Umbriel apparently been inactive throughout their histories
while Ariel and Titania have been at least partially resurfaced?
... Uranus
... Titania
... Oberon
... Neptune
...
Bill Arnett; last updated:
1994 November 11