Oberon is the second largest moon of Uranus and the 18th in order from the planet. Oberon was discovered by William Herschel on 11 January 1787. It is named after the king of the Fairies in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream and is also known as Uranus IV.

 

Oberon's heavily cratered surface, featuring far more and larger craters than do Ariel or Titania, is clearly ancient. Some of the craters have bright rays similar to those seen on Jupiter's moon Callisto and some of the crater floors are dark – covered perhaps with a mixture of carbonaceous substances and ice that erupted from below. Large faults run across the entire southern hemisphere, indicating geologic activity in Oberon's youth. In the image shown here, note the large mountain, about 6 kilometers high, that stands out on the lower left limb.

discovery	1787, by William Herschel
semimajor axis	582,600 km (361,860 mi)
diameter	1,523 km (947 mi)
mean density	1.64 g/cm3
escape velocity	0.729 km/s (2,624 km/h, 1,631 mph)
orbital period	13.463 days (13 d 11 hr)
orbital eccentricity	0.0008
orbital inclination	0.10º
axial period	13.463 days
visual albedo	0.24