TITANIA

major satellite of Uranus, first detected in 1787 by the English astronomer William Herschel, who had discovered the planet itself six years earlier. Titania orbits at a distance of 435,840 km (270,818 miles) from the centre of Uranus; its orbital period is 8.706 days. Titania is the second largest of the five major Uranian satellites. Its estimated diameter is 1,600 km (990 miles), and its mass about 6.8 10-5 that of Uranus. Titania appears to be made up chiefly of water ice; a small amount of methane frost and rock is probably present as well. Its surface has many bright craters, along with trenches and a deep fault line extending roughly 1,600 km (1,000 miles). These and other related subsidence features strongly suggest the occurrence of tectonic processes. the queen of the fairies in Shakespeare's comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream. Bearing some resemblance to Hera of Greek mythology, Titania opposes her husband Oberon, who, with the help of Puck, causes her to fall in love with Nick Bottom the weaver, who is wearing a donkey's head. Her infatuation with the altered Bottom is a metaphor for the blindness of love, a malady from which most of the major characters in this play suffer. Titania and Oberon's discord mirrors the misadventures of the mortal inhabitants of the forest; when they resolve their quarrel, harmony is restored to the four young lovers as well.