We on Earth have just one moon, but some planets have dozens of them. Up first are Mercury and Venus. Neither of them has a moon. Any moon would most likely crash into Mercury or maybe go into orbit around the Sun and eventually get pulled into it. Mars has two moons. Their names are Phobos and Deimos. Next are the giant outer planets. They have lots of moons. Jupiter, for instance, has 79 known moons! 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.
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. The International Astronomical Union approves an official name when the discovery is confirmed. 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.
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.
Jupiter's menagerie of moons includes the largest in the solar system Ganymede , an ocean moon Europa and a volcanic moon Io. The surface of Europa moon is the smoothest surface of any known solid object in the Solar System. Some scientists believe that water may exist below the surface of Europa.
The surface of Callisto is the most heavily cratered surface in the Solar System. Its surface is mostly covered with impact craters. Here are 14 interesting facts about our Solar system. Saturn has 62 moons out of which 53 moons have been officially named. Other than Earth, Titan is the only object in space where clear evidence of stable bodies of surface liquid has been found.
Uranus has 27 moons. It was discovered in Triton is the seventh-largest moon in the Solar System. The largest moon of the dwarf planet Pluto is named Charon. Also, do you know of any other interesting facts about the number of moons of each planet of the solar system?
Do let us know in the comments below. Is it ok to volunteer a question? Great article! Thanks for posting it. Could it be more accurate to say that Pluto-Charon is a binary dwarf planet system? Rather, the two orbit a point in space between them closer to larger Pluto, but still — a point in space between them.
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