Three previously undiscovered moons in our solar system have been spotted by astronomers. One additional moon circling Uranus and two additional moons circling Neptune.
How exactly were these beauties discovered?
The newly discovered tiny moons were discovered using very powerful land-based telescopes in Hawaii and Chile. The International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center made the announcement on Friday February 23rd. They are the faintest ever found around these two icy giant planets. The current tally stands at 16 known moons for Neptune and 28 known moons for Uranus. The new moon discovered for Uranus is likely the planet’s smallest moon with an estimated diameter of about 8 kilometers or 5 miles. To give perspective, Uranus’ largest moon, Titania is an estimated 1,578 km in diameter or about 981 miles. So amazing! The new moon takes 680 days to orbit the planet Uranus.
It has been 20 years since the last moon was discovered near Uranus. The latest moon orbiting Uranus was provisionally named S/2023 U1. Keeping with the tradition of naming Uranus’ moons after Shakespearean play characters, we can expect a very notable name in the near future. This tradition dates back centuries.
The new moons of Neptune were provisionally named S/2021 N1 and S/2002 N5. The tradition has been to name the moons of Neptune on the 50 Nereid sea goddesses in Greek mythology. So we will await their permanent names as well.
Stay tuned, because astronomers suggest many more smaller moons are yet to be discovered.