Orpington Astronomical Society

Astronomy => In the Media... => Topic started by: SarahM on Aug 20, 2025, 18:44:34

Title: Uranus' New Moon
Post by: SarahM on Aug 20, 2025, 18:44:34
Hey

Just sharing this. James Webb discovered a new moon for Uranus. Making it 29 known satellites in orbit round the planet.

QuoteUsing NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, a team led by the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has identified a previously unknown moon orbiting Uranus, expanding the planet's known satellite family to 29. The detection was made during a Webb observation Feb. 2, 2025.

"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 lead scientist in SwRI's Solar System Science and Exploration Division based in Boulder, Colorado. "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."

More: https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/webb/2025/08/19/new-moon-discovered-orbiting-uranus-using-nasas-webb-telescope/ (https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/webb/2025/08/19/new-moon-discovered-orbiting-uranus-using-nasas-webb-telescope/)
Title: Re: Uranus' New Moon
Post by: Carole on Aug 20, 2025, 20:35:22
Amazing.  Thanks for posting.  You should put it on the Whatsapp group as well. 

Carole
Title: Re: Uranus' New Moon
Post by: Rick on Aug 20, 2025, 21:55:36
Thanks for that. Interesting stuff.

I made a couple of edits, first to quote the beginning of the article (which will make it easier to find in the future, and also leave at least a little detail if the original article vanishes from the net), and second to remove the tracking stuff from the URL.