The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has made a groundbreaking discovery — a previously unknown moon orbiting Uranus. This celestial find, made on February 2, 2023, boosts Uranus’ total moon count to 29. The moon, which is just about six miles wide, orbits approximately 35,000 miles from Uranus’ center on its equatorial plane. Its nearly circular orbit suggests that it might have formed close to its current position.\n\nThis tiny moon’s discovery was made possible by 10 long-exposure images from Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), analyzed by a team from the Southwest Research Institute. Matthew Tiscareno of the SETI Institute highlights that no other planet hosts as many small inner moons as Uranus, and this complexity points to a chaotic history linking moons and rings around the planet.\n\nThe newly discovered moon, which awaits an official name from the International Astronomical Union (IAU), is the faintest and smallest among Uranus’ known inner moons. This discovery indicates that Uranus’ intricate moon system still harbors unseen complexities. Join us as we delve deeper into this cosmic revelation at [Perplexity Results or more references].
