NASA announces discovery of new moon orbiting Uranus
A NASA research team announced that they have identified a previously unknown moon of Uranus using the
New Moon Discovered Orbiting Uranus Using NASA's Webb Telescope - NASA Science
https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/webb/2025/08/19/new-moon-discovered-orbiting-uranus-using-nasas-webb-telescope/
Webb telescope just peeked at Uranus and got mooned, literally | Mashable
http://mashable.com/article/james-webb-space-telescope-uranus-moon-discovered
Below is a movie released by the James Webb Space Telescope's YouTube channel illustrating the movement of Uranus' moons.
New Moon Discovered Orbiting Uranus Using NASA's Webb Telescope - YouTube
Uranus has 28 confirmed moons, including the five major moons: Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, and Oberon. The five major moons were observed by the 20th century, and the remaining moons were discovered by the Voyager 2 mission in 1985.
NASA announced on August 19, 2025, that it had identified a previously unknown 29th moon of Uranus. According to the team that discovered the moon, led by the Southwest Research Institute, it was first detected on February 2, 2025, during observations by the James Webb Space Telescope, in ten 40-minute long-exposure images taken by the near-infrared camera.
'It's a small moon, but it's an important discovery. Even NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft couldn't see it during its flyby about 40 years ago,' said Mariam El-Mutamid, chief scientist for the Southwest Research Institute's Solar System Science Exploration Division, in a statement. While the research results haven't yet gone through the peer-review process required for publication in a scientific journal, the official X account for NASA's James Webb Space Telescope posted, 'We can't wait for this discovery: Uranus has a new moon!'
We're not sitting on this one, Uranus has another Moon!
— NASA Webb Telescope (@NASAWebb) August 19, 2025
Webb discovered an unknown moon orbiting the planet, expanding its known satellite family to 29. https://t.co/uc9CdPnB7w pic.twitter.com/NM9vlAm24H
The moon, tentatively named 'S/2025 U1,' is estimated to be only 10 km in diameter, assuming it has a similar reflectivity to other small moons of Uranus. Matthew Tiscareno, a research team member at the Institute for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence in California, said, 'No other planet has as many small moons as Uranus. And the complex interrelationships between these moons and the rings hints at the mysteries of Uranus, which blur the boundary between the ring system and the moon system. Furthermore, this moon is smaller and much fainter than the smallest moons known to date, which may hide even more complex mysteries.'
'The new moon (S/2025 U1) is small, but it's a major astronomical feat,' said Scott Shepherd, an astronomer at the Carnegie Institution for Science who discovered Uranus' moon using a ground-based telescope in 2023. According to Shepherd, S/2025 U1 is likely related to Uranus' inner ring, and more detailed observations will provide insights into Uranus.
The official name for 'S/2025 U1' is expected to be approved by the International Astronomical Union . 'S/2023 U1,' discovered by Shepherd in 2023, also has not been officially named at the time of writing. All of Uranus' named moons are named after characters in the works of William Shakespeare or Alexander Pope .
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