Titania (moon)

Titania Earth Moon Comparison

PIA00039 Titania

Error creating thumbnail:

Titania (moon) labeled

Messina Chasma

Titania is the largest moon of Uranus and the eighth largest moon in the Solar System. Discovered by William Herschel on January 11, 1787, Titania is named after a character in Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream. It orbits Uranus at a distance of about 436,300 kilometers (271,000 miles), making it the planet's farthest major moon.

Discovery and Naming

Titania was discovered on the same day as Oberon, Uranus's second-largest moon. The names of all four then-known moons of Uranus were suggested by Herschel's son, John Herschel, in 1852, at the request of William Lassell, who had discovered Ariel and Umbriel two years earlier. The names are derived from characters in the works of Shakespeare and Alexander Pope.

Physical Characteristics

Titania is an ice moon, with a surface composed of roughly equal parts ice and rock. Its surface is characterized by large craters, deep valleys, and long, steep canyons. One of the most notable features is a large canyon named Messina Chasma, which is over 1500 kilometers long and significantly impacts the moon's geology.

The moon's icy surface is believed to cover a subsurface ocean, similar to other outer Solar System bodies. However, the exact composition beneath the ice remains a subject of research. Titania's atmosphere, if it exists, is extremely tenuous and composed mainly of oxygen.

Orbit and Rotation

Titania orbits Uranus at a distance that makes it subject to significant tidal forces. These forces contribute to the moon's geological activity, including the formation of its canyons and valleys. Titania's orbit lies inside Uranus's magnetosphere most of the time, which protects it from the solar wind but exposes it to the planet's magnetic field.

The moon is tidally locked with Uranus, meaning the same side always faces the planet. This results in one hemisphere experiencing constant daylight and the other constant darkness, depending on the position in its orbit.

Exploration

To date, the most significant source of information about Titania comes from the Voyager 2 flyby in 1986. Voyager 2 provided detailed images of the moon's surface, allowing scientists to map its craters, canyons, and other geological features. However, no dedicated missions to study Titania or the Uranian system have been launched since.

Future missions to the Uranian system have been proposed, including orbiters and possibly landers. These missions would provide more detailed information about Titania's geology, atmosphere, and potential subsurface ocean.

See Also

• Moons of Uranus
• Geology of solar terrestrial planets
• List of natural satellites