New 'tiny' moon found orbiting Uranus, bringing satellite family to 29

USA Today

a day ago

A team at the NASA has discovered a new moon orbiting Uranus, and this one is even smaller than the others.
A team led by the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) discovered the moon on Feb. 2. They made the discovery using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, which the space agency says is the largest, most powerful telescope ever launched into space.
The newly-discovered moon, called S/2025 U1, is about 6 miles in diameter, NASA said, calling it "tiny." Its discovery brings Uranus' total satellite family to 29.
"This object was spotted in a series of 10 40-minute long-exposure images captured by the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam)," said Maryame El Moutamid, a Colorado-based lead scientist from SwRI, in a news release. "It's a small moon but a significant discovery, which is something that even NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft didn't see during its flyby nearly 40 years ago."
According to NASA, the NIRCam used to detect the new moon has high resolution and infrared sensitivity that allows it to pick up faint, distant objects.
Where is the new 'tiny' moon?
Uranus is the seventh planet from the sun, and the third-largest planet in our solar system, according to NASA. It is a cold, windy planet that is surrounded by faint rings.
The planet differs from the others because it has more small inner moons, Matthew Tiscareno, who is on the research team that discovered the moon, said in the news release.
"The new moon is smaller and much fainter than the smallest of the previously known inner moons, making it likely that even more complexity remains to be discovered," Tiscareno said.
The new moon, Moon S/2025 U1, is located about 35,000 miles from Uranus' center, between the orbits of Ophelia and Bianca. It is the 14th small moon orbiting inward of these larger moons, NASA said.
While Uranus now has a total of 29 moons, NASA said five of them are considered major moons: Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania and Oberon.
Moons on Uranus are often called the literary moons because they are named after Shakespearean characters, as well as characters from titles by the English author Alexander Pope.
Before the new moon gets an official name of its own, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) will need to approve it, according to the news release. The union is responsible for officiating names and designations for astronomical objects.
Saleen Martin is a reporter on USA TODAY's NOW team. She is from Norfolk, Virginia – the 757. Email her at [e-mail].