The James Webb Space Telescope has identified a new moon orbiting Uranus, designated as S/2025 U1, which is approximately 10 kilometers across. This moon is particularly small, making it difficult to spot among the planet's bright ring system. In total, Uranus now has 29 known moons. Previously, Voyager 2 had discovered 11 moons during its close approach in 1986. Astronomers have utilized the Hubble Space Telescope and ground-based observatories to identify other small moons, but S/2025 U1 was overlooked until this recent discovery.
Using the powerful James Webb Space Telescope, scientists have spotted a moon nestled near Uranus's rings that's so small you could walk around it.
The research team estimates that the moon, dubbed S/2025 U1 for now, is just 10 kilometers, or six miles, across, making it particularly small.
This one was so small and so faint and so close to the bright ring system around Uranus that we missed it.
Astronomers using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope discovered a new moon orbiting Uranus in images taken by Webb's NIRCam.
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