The Webb Space Telescope has spotted a new tiny moon orbiting Uranus.
The new member of the lunar gang, announced Tuesday by American space agency NASA, appears to be just 10 kilometres wide. It was spotted by the telescope's near-infrared camera during observations in February.
Scientists think it hid for so long – even eluding the Voyager 2 spacecraft during its flyby about 40 years ago – because of its faintness and small size.
Uranus has 28 known moons that are named after characters from Shakespeare and Alexander Pope. About half are smaller and orbit the planet at closer range.
The new moon, still nameless, ups the planet's total count to 29.
The new addition could hint at more bite-sized moons waiting to be found around Uranus, said planetary scientist Matthew Tiscareno with the US-based SETI Institute, who was involved in the discovery.
“There's probably a lot more of them and we just need to keep looking,” said Tiscareno.
Other planets in the solar system have even more moons. Saturn has 274 known moons, while Jupiter has 95, Neptune has 16, Mars has two, the Earth has one, and Mercury and Venus have none, according to NASA.
