Two new moons and a new pair of rings have been discovered orbiting Uranus thanks to Mark Showalter of the SETI Institute, Mountainview, California and Jack Lissauer of NASA’s Ames Research Center, Moffet Field, Calif, using the Hubble Space Telescope. Above is a Hubble image of Uranus and the new rings (Credit: NASA, ESA, and M. Showalter (SETI Institute)).

The largest ring is twice the diameter of previously known rings, and both rings are much further away from the planet than those currently known; in fact, the rings are being called the “second ring system” of Uranus. One of the moons shares the orbit with one of the rings.

The Hubble data also shows the orbits of Uranus’ family of inner moons have changed significantly over the past decade. See the press release link below.

One of the new rings is thought to be created by meteorid impacts blasting dust off the surface of Mab, one of the newly discovered moons. Mab was discovered using Hubble in 2003 and is just 12 miles wide and is located inside the orbit of Miranda (See NASA representation below). The ring that Mab shares, receives a fresh supply of dust because of the impacts. It could be the impacts may have created the ring.

The second moon dubbed “Cupid” is located between the two newly found rings and is somewhat closer to the planet but still well outside the known rings. I haven’t seen any physical data on the moon Cupid except that it is small, I am going to infer that it is close to the size of Mab. I could be wrong though.

Much more information is contained in the NASA press release.

Interestingly enough the original rings of Uranus were found by a telescope aboard an airplane, watching Uranus pass in front of a star, but that’s a post for another time.

Image Credit: Top — Credit: NASA, ESA, and M. Showalter (SETI Institute)
Bottom — NASA