Oberon is the outermost of the five main moons of Uranus and the second largest, with a diameter of about 1,520 kilometres. William Herschel discovered it from Slough in England on the same night as Titania, using his large reflecting telescope. It was named by his son John Herschel after the king of the fairies in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Its surface is old and heavily cratered, and when Voyager 2 flew by in 1986 it revealed some large impact craters with dark material on their floors, as well as a tall mountain on the limb. Oberon is made of ice and rock, and like the other moons of Uranus it is thought to have formed from a disc of material around the planet.
Before and after
- c. 1787Birth of Shaka Zulu
- 1787Discovery of strontium
- 1787Discovery of yttrium
- 11 January 1787Discovery of Titania
- 11 January 1787Discovery of Oberon
- from 13 August 1787 to 29 December 1791Seventh Russo-Turkish War
- from 13 September 1787 to 10 October 1787Prussian invasion of Holland
- 17 September 1787United States Constitution
- 25 September 1787Constitutional Convention
More in Universe & space
- 1774Founding of Heidelberg-Königstuhl State Observatory
- 13 March 1781Discovery of Uranus
- 1839Founding of Harvard College Observatory
- 23 November 1843Discovery of 4P/Faye
- 28 June 1851Discovery of 6P/d'Arrest
- 28 December 1904Discovery of 19P/Borrelly
The era
This moment belongs to the Industrial era (1760 CE to 1914 CE), steam, factories and revolutions. You can also browse everything in the 18th century.