Shepherd moons. One of Uranus' most interesting features is its ring system and the ice giant's moons play an important role in shaping these rings.

However, the moons may serve an important purpose, being 'shepherd' moons that help maintain the rings. Uranus already has some shepherd moons, so adding two more to the mix wouldn't be surprising.

Uranus’ new moon will have a dramatic name. ... Shepherd first spotted S/2023 U1 on November 4, 2023, using the Magellan telescopes at Carnegie Science’s Las Campanas Observatory in Chile.

The moonlets, if they exist, may be acting as "shepherd" moons, helping to keep the rings from spreading out. Two of Uranus' 27 known moons, Ophelia and Cordelia, act as shepherds to Uranus ...

Scientists continue to comb over that data, and they might have just made a discovery from the 30-year-old recordings: Two additional moons orbiting Uranus, bringing its total to 29.

Understanding Uranus' rings, and the moons interacting with them, can help reveal more about the planet's gravity and interior structure. Eight of Uranus' nine main rings are very thin, less than ...

The moonlets, if they exist, may be acting as “shepherd” moons, helping to keep the rings from spreading out. Two of Uranus’ 27 known moons, Ophelia and Cordelia, act as shepherds to Uranus ...

Uranus is seen in this false-color view from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope from August 2003. The brightness of the planet's faint rings and dark moons has been enhanced for visibility. NASA/Erich ...

Others, such as Saturn's shepherd moons Pan and Atlas and Neptune's lonely Nereid, ... Surprised scientists discover the 'dark sides' of Uranus' moons are the wrong way around; ...

Two of the new moons, Cordelia and Ophelia, were identified as shepherd moons. They orbit on either side of Uranus’ outer Epsilon ring, and their gravitational pull herds the small particles in ...