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Oberon (moon)

Adapted from Wikipedia · Explorer experience

A true-color image of Oberon, a moon of Uranus, captured by the Voyager 2 spacecraft in 1986.

Oberon: A Magical Moon

Oberon is a big moon that orbits the planet Uranus. It is the second largest moon of Uranus and one of the biggest moons in our whole Solar System. Oberon is a special place because it was named after a fairy king from a fun play called A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare.

Discovery and Naming

A clever man named William Herschel discovered Oberon in 1787, the same day he found another moon called Titania. For many years, only Herschel could see these moons with his telescope. Today, we can see them with good telescopes from Earth. All of Uranus’s moons have names from Shakespeare’s plays or poems by Alexander Pope. Oberon’s name comes from a magical king of the fairies.

A Visit from Voyager 2

The only time we got a close look at Oberon was in January 1986. A space probe called Voyager 2 flew by Uranus and took pictures of Oberon. These pictures helped scientists learn about 40% of Oberon’s surface. They showed lots of big craters and deep cracks called canyons.

What Oberon Looks Like

Oberon is made of half ice and half rock. Its surface is dark and reddish, and it has many big craters from space rocks hitting it long ago. One of the largest craters is called Hamlet, and it is about as wide as two football fields put together. Oberon also has huge cracks in its icy surface, and one of the biggest is named Mommur Chasma. Scientists think there might be a thin layer of liquid water deep inside Oberon, but we still have much to learn about this wonderful moon.

Images

An image of the planet Uranus taken by NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft in 1986, showing the planet in its natural color.
A diagram showing how big the moon Oberon is compared to our Moon and the Earth.
A stunning collection of Jupiter and its four largest moons, known as the Galilean satellites, captured by the Voyager 1 spacecraft.
A colorful view of the dwarf planet Pluto and its moon Charon, showing their unique surfaces as captured by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft.
A spacecraft image of asteroid 243 Ida and its tiny moon Dactyl, showing details of their surfaces and colors.
A stunning view of Earth rising over the Moon, as seen by astronauts on the Apollo 8 mission in 1968.
A colorful display of our solar system's planets — Mercury, Venus, Earth with its Moon, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune — as captured by NASA spacecraft. Learn about the amazing worlds that orbit our Sun!
A detailed image of Oberon, one of Uranus's moons, showing named surface features as studied by NASA.

Related articles

Uranus
Solar System
A Midsummer Night's Dream
William Shakespeare
William Herschel
Titania (moon)

This article is a child-friendly adaptation of the Wikipedia article on Oberon (moon), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

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