NASA said a tiny moon has been found by the Webb Space Telescope orbiting the planet Uranus.
The moon is only six miles wide and was found by Webb’s near-infrared camera, The Associated Press reported.
That’s about the length of a 10K.
Scientists believe that it was missed for so long because it is tiny and is faint, the AP reported.
Even the Voyager 2 spacecraft missed it nearly 40 years ago, when it flew by the planet.
“This object was spotted in a series of 10 40-minute long-exposure images captured by the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam),” Maryame El Moutamid said. “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.”
El Moutamid is a lead scientist in SwRI’s Solar System Science and Exploration Division.
It is about 35,000 miles from the planet’s center and is located between the orbits of Ophelia and Bianca, El Moutamid said.
“Its nearly circular orbit suggests it may have formed near its current location," she explained.
Until now, Uranus had 28 known moons, each named after characters from Shakespeare and Alexander Pope.
The new moon has no name yet, and brings the total to 29, with more maybe hidden around the planet.
“There’s probably a lot more of them and we just need to keep looking,” planetary scientist Matthew Tiscareno said.
“No other planet has as many small inner moons as Uranus, and their complex inter-relationships with the rings hint at a chaotic history that blurs the boundary between a ring system and a system of moons,” Tiscareno explained. “Moreover, 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.”
No. 29 was found during an observation from Feb. 2, NASA said.
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