The Artemis II launch has rocketed space photography into the fore and I for one cannot get enough of it. So much so that while browsing the internet for more interstellar goodness, I happened upon an older NASA news post from August of last year reporting on the discovery of a new moon orbiting Uranus. But what I found most interesting was how it was discovered and it has everything to do with photography.
You see, a team led by the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to make the discovery by capturing 10 40-minute exposures using the telescope’s primary near-infrared camera, NIRCam. The video (above) shows each of the ten images, all captured during a six-hour period from February 2, 2025 between 01:05 and 06:54 UT.
According to the video’s description, each image is “a composite of three different treatments of the data,” as it wouldn’t be possible to see the planetary atmosphere, rings and moons in a single treatment. The new moon, S/2025 U1 is highlighted by a circle in each image, which is helpful as it’s incredibly faint. As such, you can clearly see it orbiting a portion of the planet.
This is a great example of just how far imaging has come. Even NASA’s Voyager 2 couldn’t detect this moon when it cruised past Uranus in 1986. To date, it’s the only space craft to have ever explored the ice giant. If you’re keen on astrophotography, you’ll know that there’s a full moon tonight and plenty more exciting celestial opportunities for astrophotography in May 2026.
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