Object Analysis

Titania is the largest moon of Uranus and the eighth-largest moon in the Solar System. It was discovered by William Herschel in 1787. Titania is composed of approximately equal amounts of ice and rock and likely possesses a differentiated interior with a rocky core and an icy mantle.

The surface of Titania is a mixture of impact craters and a vast system of interconnected fault-scarps and canyons. One of these canyons, Messina Chasma, is roughly 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) long, stretching across a huge portion of the moon's surface. This indicates a period of global expansion early in the moon's history as its interior froze and expanded.

Infrared spectroscopy has revealed the presence of water ice and carbon dioxide on Titania's surface. Some scientists believe there may even be a thin layer of liquid water—a subsurface ocean—at the boundary between the core and the mantle, maintained by the decay of radioactive elements, though this has yet to be confirmed by direct observation.