On this day in space: Jan. 11, 1787: William Herschel discovers 2 moons of Uranus

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On Jan. 11, 1787, the English astronomer Sir William Herschel discovered two moons at Uranus!

On Jan. 11, 1787, the English astronomer Sir William Herschel discovered two moons at Uranus!

Uranus' moons Oberon and Titania, as imaged by NASA's Voyager probe, were discovered by Sir William Herschel on Jan. 11, 1787. (Image credit: NASA)

By now astronomers have discovered 27 moons oft Uranus, and all of them are named after characters from the works of William Shakespeare and Alexander Pope.

Titania is the largest moon of Uranus and is named after the queen of the fairies in Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream." Oberon is the second-largest and is named after the mythical king of the fairies in the same story.

On This Day in Space: See our full 365-day video archive!

Hanneke Weitering
Hanneke Weitering
Contributing expert

Hanneke Weitering is a multimedia journalist in the Pacific Northwest reporting on the future of aviation at FutureFlight.aero and Aviation International News and was previously the Editor for Spaceflight and Astronomy news here at Space.com. As an editor with over 10 years of experience in science journalism she has previously written for Scholastic Classroom Magazines, MedPage Today and The Joint Institute for Computational Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. After studying physics at the University of Tennessee in her hometown of Knoxville, she earned her graduate degree in Science, Health and Environmental Reporting (SHERP) from New York University. Hanneke joined the Space.com team in 2016 as a staff writer and producer, covering topics including spaceflight and astronomy. She currently lives in Seattle, home of the Space Needle, with her cat and two snakes. In her spare time, Hanneke enjoys exploring the Rocky Mountains, basking in nature and looking for dark skies to gaze at the cosmos. 

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