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    In Depth Moons - NASA Solar System Exploration

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    rgreat786
    Moons come in many shapes and sizes and form from the discs of gas and dust that form around planets. There are over 200 moons in our solar system, with the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn having the most. Earth has one moon that formed from debris after a large impact, while Mars has two small irregular moons. Most moons are named after mythological figures, though Uranus' moons have names from Shakespeare plays.

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    In Depth Moons - NASA Solar System Exploration

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    rgreat786
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    Moons come in many shapes and sizes and form from the discs of gas and dust that form around planets. There are over 200 moons in our solar system, with the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn having the most. Earth has one moon that formed from debris after a large impact, while Mars has two small irregular moons. Most moons are named after mythological figures, though Uranus' moons have names from Shakespeare plays.

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    In Depth Moons – NASA Solar System Exploration

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    Moons come in many shapes and sizes and form from the discs of gas and dust that form around planets. There are over 200 moons in our solar system, with the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn having the most. Earth has one moon that formed from debris after a large impact, while Mars has two small irregular moons. Most moons are named after mythological figures, though Uranus' moons have names from Shakespeare plays.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    25 views1 page

    In Depth Moons - NASA Solar System Exploration

    Uploaded by

    rgreat786
    Moons come in many shapes and sizes and form from the discs of gas and dust that form around planets. There are over 200 moons in our solar system, with the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn having the most. Earth has one moon that formed from debris after a large impact, while Mars has two small irregular moons. Most moons are named after mythological figures, though Uranus' moons have names from Shakespeare plays.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    MOONS

    In Depth
    Introduction
    Moons – also called natural satellites – come in many
    shapes, sizes and types. They are generally solid
    bodies, and few have atmospheres. Most planetary
    moons probably formed from the discs of gas and
    dust circulating around planets in the early solar
    system.

    There are hundreds of moons in our solar system –


    even a few asteroids have been found to have small
    companion moons. Moons that begin with a letter
    and a year are considered provisional moons. They
    will be given a proper name when their discoveries
    are confirmed by additional observations.

    Of the terrestrial (rocky) planets of the inner solar


    system, neither Mercury nor Venus have any moons
    at all, Earth has one and Mars has its two small
    moons. In the outer solar system, the gas giants
    Jupiter and Saturn and the ice giants Uranus and
    Neptune have dozens of moons. As these planets
    grew in the early solar system, they were able to
    capture smaller objects with their large gravitational
    fields.

    *Moons of planets and dwarf planets.


    Planet / Confirmed Provisional
    Total
    Dwarf Planet Moons Moons
    Mercury 0 0 0
    Venus 0 0 0
    Earth 1 0 1
    Mars 2 0 2
    Jupiter 57 23 80
    Saturn 63 20 83
    Uranus 27 0 27
    Neptune 14 0 14
    Dwarf Planets
    Pluto 5 0 5
    Eris 1 0 1
    Haumea 2 0 2
    Makemake 0 1 1
    Ceres 0 0 0
    Totals 158 56 214*
    How Moons Get Their Names
    How Moons Get Their Names
    Most moons in our solar system are named for
    mythological characters from a wide variety of
    cultures. The newest moons discovered at Saturn, for
    example, are named for Norse gods such as
    Bergelmir, a giant.

    Uranus is the exception.


    Uranus' moons are
    named for characters in
    William Shakespeare's
    Shakespeare’s characters are
    plays so you’ll find immortalized in orbit at Uranus.
    Ophelia and Puck in
    orbit. Other Uranian moon names were chosen from
    Alexander Pope's poetry (Belinda and Ariel).

    Moons are given provisional designations such as


    S/2009 S1, the first satellite discovered at Saturn in
    2009. The International Astronomical Union approves
    an official name when the discovery is confirmed.
    Moons of the Inner Solar System
    Moons of the Inner Solar
    System
    Earth's Moon probably formed when a large body
    about the size of Mars collided with Earth, ejecting a
    lot of material from our planet into orbit. Debris from
    the early Earth and the impacting body accumulated
    to form the Moon approximately 4.5 billion years ago
    (the age of the oldest collected lunar rocks). Twelve
    American astronauts landed on the Moon during
    NASA's Apollo program from 1969 to 1972, studying
    the Moon and bringing back rock samples.

    Usually the term moon brings to mind a spherical


    object, like Earth's Moon. The two moons of Mars,
    Phobos and Deimos, are different. While both have
    nearly circular orbits and travel close to the plane of
    the planet's equator, they are lumpy and dark.
    Phobos is slowly drawing closer to Mars and could
    crash into the planet in 40 or 50 million years. Or the
    planet's gravity might break Phobos apart, creating a
    thin ring around Mars.
    Moons of the Giant Planets
    Moons of the Giant Planets
    Jupiter's menagerie of moons includes the largest in
    the solar system (Ganymede), an ocean moon
    (Europa) and a volcanic moon (Io). Many of Jupiter's
    outer moons have highly elliptical orbits and orbit
    backwards (opposite to the spin of the planet).
    Saturn, Uranus and Neptune also have some irregular
    moons, which orbit far from their respective planets.

    Saturn has two ocean moons – Enceladus and Titan.


    Both have subsurface oceans and Titan also has
    surface seas of lakes of ethane and methane. The
    chunks of ice and rock in Saturn's rings (and the
    particles in the rings of the other outer planets) are
    not considered moons, yet embedded in Saturn's
    rings are distinct moons or moonlets. These shepherd
    moons help keep the rings in line. Titan, the second
    largest in the solar system, is the only moon with a
    thick atmosphere.

    In the realm of the ice giants, Uranus's inner moons


    appear to be about half water ice and half rock.
    Miranda is the most unusual; its chopped-up
    appearance shows the scars of impacts of large rocky
    bodies.

    Neptune's moon Triton is as big as Pluto and orbits


    backwards compared with Neptune's direction of
    rotation.
    Moons of the Kuiper Belt
    Moons of Dwarf Planets
    Pluto's large moon Charon is about half the size of
    Pluto. Like Earth's Moon, Charon may have formed
    from debris resulting from an early collision of an
    impactor with Pluto. Scientists using the Hubble
    Space Telescope to study Pluto found four more small
    moons.

    Eris, another dwarf planet even more distant than


    Pluto, has a small moon of its own, named Dysnomia.
    Haumea, another dwarf planet, has two satellites,
    Hi'iaka and Namaka. Ceres, the closest dwarf planet
    to the Sun, has no moons.
    More Moons
    More Moons
    Scientists weren't sure if asteroids could hold moons
    in their orbits until the Galileo spacecraft flew past
    asteroid Ida in 1993. Images revealed a tiny moon,
    later named Dactyl.

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