{"id":371850,"date":"2025-08-25T08:14:35","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T08:14:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/371850\/"},"modified":"2025-08-25T08:14:35","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T08:14:35","slug":"uranus-has-a-tiny-new-moon-and-its-only-six-miles-wide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/371850\/","title":{"rendered":"Uranus Has a Tiny New Moon and It\u2019s Only Six Miles Wide"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\"New<\/a>James Webb has revealed Uranus\u2019 smallest moon yet, a six-mile-wide world hidden near its inner rings. This discovery pushes the planet\u2019s moon count to 29 and shows how Webb can uncover secrets Voyager 2 never saw. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, M. El Moutamid (SwRI), M. Hedman (University of Idaho)<\/p>\n

The James Webb Space Telescope has spotted a tiny, hidden moon orbiting Uranus that even Voyager 2 missed during its 1986 flyby.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The newfound satellite, only about six miles wide, becomes Uranus\u2019 29th known moon and orbits near the planet\u2019s inner rings. Its discovery highlights Webb\u2019s extraordinary ability to uncover small, faint objects in the outer solar system, while adding a new member to Uranus\u2019 Shakespeare-inspired celestial family.<\/p>\n

Discovery of a New Uranian Moon<\/p>\n

Scientists from the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) have used the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to identify a previously unknown moon orbiting Uranus. The discovery, made by a team led by Dr. Maryame El Moutamid, came from images captured on February 2, 2025. With this addition, Uranus is now known to have 29 moons.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs part of JWST\u2019s guest observer program, we found a previously unknown satellite of the ice giant, which has been provisionally designated S\/2025 U 1,\u201d said El Moutamid, a lead scientist in SwRI\u2019s Solar System Science and Exploration Division in Boulder, Colorado. \u201cThis object, by far the smallest object discovered to date, was detected in a series of 10 long exposures obtained by the Near-Infrared Camera.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Uranian<\/a>A new SwRI-led JWST survey discovered S\/2025 U 1 (approximate location indicated in yellow), a tiny moon orbiting Uranus between the satellites Bianca and Ophelia. If it has an albedo comparable to other nearby moons, this object is probably around six miles in diameter, by far the smallest moon in the Uranus system to date. The solid ellipses indicate rings, while the dotted lines show the orbits of many of the inner moons. Credit: Public Domain
\nThe Sideways Planet\u2019s Unique Nature<\/p>\n

Uranus, the seventh planet from the Sun, lies in the distant reaches of the solar system. Often called \u201cthe sideways planet\u201d because of its unusual tilt, Uranus is a cyan-colored ice giant with an atmosphere rich in hydrogen, helium, and methane. Researchers believe its larger moons are composed of roughly equal amounts of water ice and silicate rock.<\/p>\n

\u201cAssuming that the new moon has an albedo comparable to other nearby satellites, this object is probably around six miles (10 km) in diameter,\u201d El Moutamid said. \u201cIt is well below the detection threshold for the Voyager 2 cameras.\u201d<\/p>\n

Voyager 2\u2019s Historic Flyby<\/p>\n

The only spacecraft ever to visit Uranus is Voyager 2, which made its closest approach on January 24, 1986, passing within about 50,000 miles of the planet\u2019s upper clouds. During its flyby, Voyager 2 gathered thousands of images that revealed Uranus\u2019 ring system and uncovered several small moons, including 10 that were later given official names.<\/p>\n

Uranus\u2019 28 moons include five major moons \u2014 Titania, Oberon, Umbriel, Ariel, and Miranda \u2014 discovered between 1787 and 1948. Known as \u201cthe literary moons,\u201d Uranus\u2019s satellites are named for characters in Shakespeare and the works of Alexander Pope.<\/p>\n

\"New<\/a>Southwest Research Institute led a James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) survey, discovering a previously unknown moon (circled) orbiting Uranus between its satellites Bianca and Ophelia. This image shows the tiny moon, designated S\/2025 U1, as well as 13 of the 28 other known moons orbiting the planet. (The small moon Cordelia orbiting just inside the outermost ring is not visible here due to glare from the rings.) Due to the drastic differences in brightness levels, the image is a composite of three different treatments of the data, showing details about the planetary atmosphere, the surrounding rings, and the orbiting moons. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, M. El Moutamid (SwRI), M. Hedman (University of Idaho)
\nOrbit and Neighboring Moons<\/p>\n

The new moon is at the edge of Uranus\u2019 inner rings. It is located about 35,000 miles (56,250 km) from its center in the planet\u2019s equatorial plane, between the orbits of Ophelia and Bianca. Ophelia is about 13 miles (43 km) in diameter, while Bianca is an elongated object around 40 by 29 miles (64 by 46 km) in dimension.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith so many of Uranus\u2019 moons named for Shakespearean characters, our team is getting a lot of culture trying to figure out what to name our new discovery,\u201d El Moutamid said.<\/p>\n

Never miss a breakthrough: Join the SciTechDaily newsletter.<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James Webb has revealed Uranus\u2019 smallest moon yet, a six-mile-wide world hidden near its inner rings. This discovery…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":371851,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3844],"tags":[901,7958,24687,3890,70,70647,413,16,15,3892],"class_list":{"0":"post-371850","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-astronomy","9":"tag-james-webb-space-telescope","10":"tag-moons","11":"tag-planets","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-southwest-research-institute","14":"tag-space","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-uranus"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115088409872550699","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371850\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}