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Space Topics: Uranus

Uranus' Moon Oberon

Oberon
Click to enlarge >
Credit: NASA/JPL/Ted Stryk

Diameter: 1,522.8 kilometers
Orbital distance: 583,500 kilometers from Uranus
Orbital period: 8.71 days
Discovery: 1787 by William Herschel

Oberon is the second largest of Uranus’ moons, just a little smaller than Titania.  Oberon’s is an ancient, cratered surface, but a few features hint at more recent activity.  Many craters have bright rays.  Some craters have dark centers, indicating perhaps that some dirty/icy fluid erupted from Oberon’s interior to fill the craters.  The most tantalizing feature on Oberon is a cone-shaped mountain that must rise at least 20 kilometers from the surface.  But its base is hidden from view over the moon’s limb as seen in the Voyager 2 images, so it is impossible to know how tall a mountain it is and whether there are any more like it on Oberon.