10 Oberon Moon Facts | Great Facts about Oberon

Oberon is one of the moons of the planet Uranus. It is the furthest from the planet out of the major moons, and it is the second largest of them too. On its surface, this moon is covered in ice, and has various different canyons and craters. Let’s look at some facts about Oberon and see what else we can learned about this moon.

1. Oberon has an estimated radius of 473 miles (761km).
2. This means that it is only marginally smaller than the largest Uranian moon, Titania. It is also the ninth largest moon in our solar system.
3. Oberon orbits the planet at an estimated 363,000 miles (584,000km), making it the furthest out of the major moons.
4. Because of it’s distance from Uranus, it takes the moon around 13 days to complete one full orbit.
5. Oberon takes it’s name from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
6. Like many other moons that orbit Uranus, it was discovered by William Herschel, six years after he discovered Uranus.
7. Oberon has a lot of craters on it, more than other other moon that orbits the planet Uranus.
8. Of these craters, the largest crater being named after the Shakespearean character, Hamlet.
9. Uranus has an average temperature of -224.2°c.
10. Like many of the Uranian moons, the only spacecraft that has been in it’s vicinity is the Voyager 2, which was launched more than 40 years ago. The Voyager 2 is still going, and is now more than 11 billion miles from the planet Earth.

Oberon actually takes it’s name from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Oberon is actually the king of the fairies, with his Queen being named Titania, which is another Uranian moon. In the play Oberon also has a servant named Puck, which is the name of one of Uranus’s smaller moons. It makes sense that Oberon and Titania take their names from the two titular characters from the play.

Oberon is likely made up of a large percentage of water ice, with some rock and carbon materials too, which contribute to it’s high density. We aren’t sure whether the water beneath Oberon’s surface is made up of a solid icy mantle, or it could potentially have an ocean beneath it’s surface.

Oberon is one of the darkest on Uranus’s moons, with only Umbriel being darker. It has a red surface – it is redder than any other Uranian moon. It’s surface is sprinkled with both canyons and craters, with the large amount of craters suggesting that it may be one of the older moons that orbits this planet. The largest crater of Oberon is more than 200km in diameter.

Oberon orbits the planet at a very long distance of more than 500km. This means that it has a long orbital period of more than 13 days. Because of this distance, this moon spends most of it’s time outside of the magnetic field of Uranus. This leaves the moon vulnerable to solar winds, which makes it slightly different than the other major moons that orbit Uranus.

If you’re trying to see Oberon with a telescope, then this is definitely going to be difficult, although it is possible to see the moon with an amateur telescope. Oberon is one of the five major moons that orbits around the planet Uranus.

To sum it up, Oberon is the second largest moon only to Titania, which both take their names from the lovers from a famous Shakespeare play. It is very far out from Uranus when it is orbiting the planet, which means that it has a long orbital period too. As a heavily cratered object with many different bumps and color changes across the moon’s surface, Oberon is definitely a fascinating one.