JWST spots new moon around Uranus, bringing total to 29
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has spotted a brand-new moon, S/2025 U1, circling Uranus.
It's tiny—only about 9.66km wide—and was too faint for Voyager 2 or older telescopes to see back in the 1980s.
This brings Uranus's total known moons up to 29.
New moon's orbit and formation
S/2025 U1 orbits pretty close to Uranus, at about 56327km from the planet's center—much nearer than our own Moon is to Earth.
Its almost perfect circular path hints it formed right where it is now, hanging out with other small inner moons inside the orbits of big ones like Miranda and Titania.
Naming of the new moon
This discovery highlights just how good JWST is at spotting faint, far-off objects that older missions like Voyager couldn't catch.
The official name for S/2025 U1 will be decided by the International Astronomical Union soon.