It was discovered from the images taken by Voyager 2 on 13 January 1986, and was given the temporary designation S/1986 U 6.

[12] Desdemona belongs to Portia Group of satellites, which also includes Bianca, Cressida, Juliet, Portia, Rosalind, Cupid, Belinda, and Perdita.

[8] Other than its orbit,[5] size of 90 × 54 km,[6] and geometric albedo of 0.08,[8] virtually nothing is known about Desdemona.

In Voyager 2 imagery, Desdemona appears as an elongated object, with its major axis pointing towards Uranus.

[6] Desdemona may collide with one of its neighboring moons Cressida or Juliet within the next 100 million years.