Oberon (moon) toward the planet. Oberon spends a significant part of its orbit outside the Uranian magnetosphere. As a result, its surface is directly struck by the solar wind. This is important, because the trailing hemispheres of satellites orbiting inside a magnetosphere are struck by the magnetospheric plasma, which co–rotates with the planet. This bombardment may lead to the darkening of the trailing hemispheres, which is actually observed for all Uranian moons except Oberon (see below). Because Uranus orbits the Sun almost on its side, and its moons orbit in the planet's equatorial plane, they (including Oberon) are subject to an extreme
Oberon (moon) largest craters, Hamlet, Othello and Macbeth, have floors made of a very dark material deposited after their formation. A peak with a height of about 11 km was observed in some "Voyager" images near the south-eastern limb of Oberon, which may be the central peak of a large impact basin with a diameter of about 375 km. Oberon's surface is intersected by a system of canyons, which, however, are less widespread than those found on Titania. The canyons' sides are probably scarps produced by normal faults which can be either old or fresh: the latter transect the bright deposits of