Nasa’s Webb telescope has found a new moon around Uranus.
The tiny object is only about 10 kilometres wide and is the 29th addition to the family of moons around the planet.
Scientists think it was able to hide for so long not only because of its small size but also its relative faintness. That meant it could lay undiscovered during other observations, such as Voyager 2, which flew past the planet around 40 years ago.
There could many other of the objects lying in wait around the planet, still undiscovered, researchers suggest.
“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,” said Matthew Tiscareno of the SETI Institute, a member of the research team, in a statement.
“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.”
All of the moons around Uranus are named after characters from Shakespeare and Alexandra Pope. The new one is part of a system that orbits inside the largest moons Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, and Oberon, for instance.
But the new one is yet to receive a name. It will get one when it is approved by the International Astronomical Union, which chooses names and designations for objects in space.
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