This fascinating discovery, officially announced this week by the Swri, was made through the analysis of a series of images taken on February 2, 2025 using the NASA telescope. It brings to 29 the total number of known satellites of Uranus.
“This is an important discovery for understanding the Compact Uranus systemwhere satellites are very close to each other, creating gravitational disturbances that make the system unstable in the long term, “said Doctor El Moutamid in an interview with the map.
In the long term, she explained, these satellites will collide and form more massive rings which, in turn, will spread out and create new satellites, designing a repetitive cycle of around 50 million years.
“Therefore, this discovery helps to understand the time scale of this instability and the composition of the primordial system of Uranus,” noted the Moroccan scientist, who, at 41, occupies the functions of main scientists Southwest Research Institute and the main investigator of an Uranus observation program led by the JWST.
Asked about her academic and scientific journey, Maryame El Moutamid said that she had attended the Moroccan public school before leaving for France where she notably won her doctorate, and in the United States where she worked as a post-doctoral student at the prestigious Cornell University in New York.
This native of Essaouira, who praised the “quality” of Moroccan education systemwanted to encourage young Moroccans who are interested in space to “go for it, never underestimate and seize the opportunities to work with scientists from around the world”.
Returning to the details of her new discovery, she said that this celestial star Only 10 km in diameter is “the smallest satellite in Uranus discovered to date”.
It was detected in a series of 10 long 40-minute exhibitions obtained by a near infrared camera, designed to capture and detect light in the region of the near infrared of the electromagnetic spectrum, which is just beyond the visible light.
An area below the detection threshold of the cameras of the Voyager 2 probe, the only spacecraft to have visited Uranus so far, approaching less than 80,000 km from the surface of its clouds in 1986.
The probe had collected thousands of images, discovering rings and small satellites, including 10 of its named moons.
28 satellites d’Uranus Include five main moons – Titania, Oberon, Umbriel, Ariel and Miranda – Discoveries between 1787 and 1948. Known under the name of “Lunes Littéraires”, the Uranus satellites bear the names of Shakespeare characters and Alexander Pope’s works.
The new satellite is at the edge of the interior rings of Uranus, about 56,250 km from its center in the planet’s equatorial plan, between the Ophelia and Bianca orbits.
Located in the external solar system, Uranus is nicknamed the “lying planet”. Maryame El Moutamid says that she has chosen to study it because it is a “poorly known planet” with an axis of rotation inclined to more than 90 ° compared to its orbital plan, which facilitates the observation of rings and satellites.
This cyan planet has a dense atmosphere composed of hydrogen, helium and methane. Scientists believe that the largest Uranus satellites are composed of the water and silicate rockery.
Another reason to study Uranus is the narrow and well -confined nature of its rings, which require a “shepherd dog” mechanism to prevent the dispersion of particles, argued the Moroccan scientist who remains convinced that her new discovery will open the way to others.
Maryame El Moutamid Confided that its medium -term objective is to carry out a spatial mission not inhabited around the planet Saturn to study its rings and satellites, in particular those which contain liquid oceans, in order to understand their geological formation and their dynamic evolution.
By Naoufaal Enhari
