I think it's more amazing that we can find what we have given the size of space. And it would be both incredible, unbelievable, and a bit concerning if the farthest objects we've found are all there are. There's no reason there wouldn't be a lot more, they're hard to find, and why would there be an empty spot between them and the Oort cloud (which is WAY out there, not something we've actually seen).
post
it's just a mole
Mirrored version:
This is pretty cool! Didn't think there would be much left to discover in-system, at least without visiting the planets.
Non-paywalled story: https://science.nasa.gov/blogs/webb/2025/08/19/new-moon-discovered-orbiting-uranus-using-nasas-webb-telescope/
Look at that amazing photo! Hubble struggled to even get good photos that made the rings visible. I'm sure there's some IR or false-color going on in this, but the state of JWST's optics is just incredible.

That's it, this is my best science news for the year. Nothing is going to top finding a new moon.
We must know more. It is imperative that we send a probe to plunge into the moon of uranus!
I mean, depending on you definition of heavenly body there are thousands of asteroids we don't know of and probably hundreds of dwarf planets. And I don't even know if we've ever seen anything in the Oort Cloud or if we just suspect it's there.
The Vera Rubin telescope will surely reveal thousands of objects we didn't know of before.


all 11 comments