Webb Telescope Spots A New Moon Orbiting Uranus

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) continues to carnivore fruit. Images captured by nan floating watchtower revealed a antecedently chartless satellite orbiting Uranus. The discovery, made connected February 2, increases nan planet's satellite tally to 29.

The satellite was easy to miss: It's only an estimated six miles wide. It's located astir 35,000 miles from Uranus' center, orbiting nan planet's equatorial plane. The satellite has a astir information orbit, suggesting it could person formed adjacent its existent location.

NASA's short video beneath shows nan faint speck orbiting its ringed host.

The caller satellite joins 13 different mini moons successful Uranus' orbit. The satellite besides has 5 awesome moons (Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania and Oberon) and 10 irregular ones. The caller satellite won't person a sanction until 1 is approved by nan International Astronomical Union (IAU).

It was detected utilizing 10 40-minute long-exposure images taken by Webb's Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam). A squad led by nan Southwest Research Institute pored done nan telescope's images to place it.

"No different satellite has arsenic galore mini soul moons arsenic Uranus, and their analyzable inter-relationships pinch nan rings hint astatine a chaotic history that blurs nan bound betwixt a ringing strategy and a strategy of moons,” Matthew Tiscareno of nan SETI Institute wrote. “Moreover, nan caller satellite is smaller and overmuch fainter than nan smallest of nan antecedently known soul moons, making it apt that moreover much complexity remains to beryllium discovered.”