The NASA telescope discovers a previously unknown moon of Uranus

Illustration of Uranus. Credit – Science Photo Library/Getty Images

The James Webb Space Telescope from NASA has circled a previously unknown moon that circles Uranus.

NASA announced the discovery on Tuesday and added that the moon was discovered for the first time on February 2. Scientists estimate that the newly discovered moon has a diameter of about six miles. Its “tiny” size is probably the reason why other telescopes – and the Voyager 2 spaceship performed a flyby almost four decades ago – never saw according to NASA. For comparison: The moon of the earth has an average diameter of more than 2,000 miles, and Uranus’ largest moon, Titania, has a diameter of about 1,000 miles.

“It is a small moon, but a significant discovery,” said Maryame El Moutamid, a senior scientist of the Department of Science and Exploration of the Southwest Research Institute, in the announcement of NASA.

Before this discovery, Uranus – the seventh planet of the sun – was known of 28 moons. The planets’s moons were often referred to as “literary moons” because they are all named after characters from works by William Shakespeare and Alexander Pope. The planet has five big moons: Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania and Oberon.

The new moon, which brings Uranus’ total number of well -known moons to 29, is currently shown at S/2025 U1, but has no official name yet. A name must be approved by the international astronomical Union, which according to NASA is responsible for naming and determining astronomical objects. The space agency added that the discovery had not yet gone through the peer review process.

This year ago, the last discovered Moon, which was designated at S/2023 U1, was spotted in November 2023.

Matthew Tiscareno, a member of the research team, which is part of the SETI institute, said in NASA’s announcement that the recent discovery “probably remains even more complexity” when it comes to the mondrows.

“There is probably a lot more of them and we just have to look for,” Tiscareno told The Associated Press.

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