NASA was able to spot a “new moon” while using the James Webb Space Telescope in one of the furthest planets inside our solar system – and still might not be enough to uncover the truth about what the planet is hiding. The moon is not exclusive to Earth – even though ours is up there only to help us. These celestial bodies are formed through millions of years of collisions between cosmic objects like asteroids and comets, and in our solar system, there are up to 950 known moons – most orbiting Jupiter, which, by itself, has over 95.
How our moon was formed: It has an especial bond with Earth
The most accepted theory for the formation of moons is that the impact of other giant cosmic bodies destroys a big portion of the planet, pushing some materials to space along with gas, and eventually, it collapses in its own gravitational field. This was exactly what happened 4.5 billion years ago, when an asteroid the size of Mars hit our planet, according to the Giant Impact Hypothesis.
With hundreds of moons in our solar system, one stood out as the James Webb captured its presence for the first time since 1986. The theory that Uranus has new moon is present in astronomy for years, but only now it was proved that it really exists. During the flyby in the 80s, the Voyager 2 was not able to see the moon due to its size and because it was hidden. On the other hand, this doesn’t seem to be a problem for the James Webb.
Uranus can’t hide its moon anymore: James Webb found it
Astronomers working with the James Webb Space Telescope have spotted something Voyager 2 missed nearly 40 years ago – a new moon circling Uranus. NASA confirmed the discovery, which now raises the planet’s moon count to 29, with the chance that even more are waiting to be found.
The tiny object showed up in a set of long-exposure images captured by Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera on February 2. At only about 10 kilometers across, the new moon is easy to miss. The glow is so weak that it disappears into Uranus’s rings, and that’s the reason Voyager 2 and Hubble couldn’t spot it earlier.
Maryame El Moutamid, a planetary scientist at the Southwest Research Institute, leads the Webb program studying Uranus’ hidden rings and moons. She explains that the newly found body – temporarily named S/2025 U1 – might share its origin with the material that makes up the planet’s rings. That would mean both the rings and the new moon could be the aftermath of the same ancient collision (and our moon could suffer in 2032).
It wasn’t easy to find this “new moon”: It sits thousands of kilometers away
What scientists know so far is that the new moon follows a nearly circular orbit, sitting about 56,000 kilometers from the planet’s center, between two of Uranus’ other small moons, Ophelia and Bianca. Catching sight of it wasn’t simple. The object is small, dark, and fast-moving – nearly invisible against Uranus’ glare. But Webb’s powerful infrared vision was able to isolate it, proving once again the telescope’s value for studying the farthest corners of our solar system.
Uranus holds many mysteries: Astronomers are looking for signs of water
Most of what we know about the planet comes from Voyager 2’s flyby in the 1980s. Astronomers hope a future dedicated mission could answer bigger questions about Uranus’ tilted axis, magnetic field, and whether some of its moons could hide oceans beneath layers of ice. Uranus and Neptune are in the border of our solar system, and after that, it’s interstellar space – but before getting into this new frontier, there are thousands of unknown objects between the two planets.