It was discovered from the images taken by Voyager 2 on January 20, 1986, and was given the temporary designation S/1986 U 8.

[10] Other than its orbit,[4] size of 54 × 38 km,[5] and geometric albedo of 0.065,[7] virtually nothing is known about it.

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

The ratio of axes of the Ophelia's prolate spheroid is 0.7 ± 0.3.

[5] Ophelia acts as the outer shepherd satellite for Uranus's ε ring.