Scientists recently noticed three new moons lingering around Uranus and Neptune, which are the most distant planets in our solar system. Precisely, there is one orbiting Uranus, and two are orbiting Neptune. It’s the first discovery of its kind in over twenty years. It underscores that while there is a strong focus on discovering what lies outside of our own solar system, there is still much left to be uncovered in Earth’s own neighborhood.
“The three newly discovered moons are the faintest ever found around these two ice giant planets using ground-based telescopes,” said Scott S. Sheppard, astronomer at the Carnegie Institution for Science, in a statement. “It took special image processing to reveal such faint objects.”
