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Luna, Earth's moon.
A natural satellite, commonly referred to as a moon, is a celestial body that orbits another, larger celestial body, which is called its primary, parent or partner. Natural satellites can come from a stray celestial body that gets pulled into a planet's gravitational pull or is formed from the debris of the primary shot into space by an external celestial object. There are 285 known natural satellites belonging to major planets in the Solar System as of 2023, each grouped unevenly throughout the eight planets. The Galilean moons are the largest moons of the Solar System, belonging to the planet of Jupiter, and were all discovered by Galileo Galilei and the less credited Simon Marius.
Some moons have gained enough mass to shape itself into a shape resembling hydrostatic equilibrium, or a nearly round shape. Saturn, in fact, has moons, such as Titan, and Jupiter's four Galilean moons: Ganymede, Io, Europa, and Callisto have all maintained hydrostatic equilibrium. There is no direct signs of life, though there have been traces of water discovered sandwiched between two or more layers.
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Formation
Moons can be formed in many different ways. Some may be a result from a large collision, and others could be captured as a result of flying too close to the parent object. Mercury and Venus have no moons due to their close distance to the sun. Earth created its own moon. During the late heavy bombardment period, a time of volcanic activity and numerous asteroid collisions on Earth, a Mars-sized planet named Theia collided with the Earth. This resulted in tons of debris ejected from the planet, creating both the Earth's moon and the atmosphere. Mars' two moons', Phobos and Deimos, creations are theoretical. One theory supports that Mars too once suffered a bombardment period and was impacted with a generous-sized celestial body similar to Earth's. The other one supports that, because of its distance from the Asteroid belt is so close, it pulled the two moons into Mars' gravitational pull, despite it being weaker than Earth's.
The outer planets moons possibly came from the Asteroid belt, which is the most reasonable explanation for the amount of moons that the gas giants possess, outnumbering the amount of moons belonging to the inner planets, which is three, by astounding amounts. Other reasonable theories support that moons collide with other moons and created moons in the process. This causes shrinking of moons, but moons can also grow in this process. By colliding, some moons created tension and seal together due to heat, similar to the activity in the Asteroid belt.
The Rings of Saturn
The Rings of Saturn contain large pieces of rock and ice crystals.
The Belts of the Solar System
Effects
Tidal Heating
Tidal heating is the interlocking of a primary, or planet, and a satellite. These celestial bodies become locked when friction between the planet and the satellite cause the ocean sandwiched beneath the layers of the moon to flex in a process known as tidal flexing. This flexing causes eruptions of the planet's surface. The interlocking only causes one side of a moon to face planet. Earth's Moon is tidally locked to us, which causes tides.
Galilean Moons
Main Article: Galilean Moons
The Galilean moons are the largest moons in the Solar System. They are some of the only moons in the Solar System, excluding Saturn's moon, Titan and a few others, to maintain hydrostatic equilibrium. They are believed to possess life due to them having oceans sandwiched between layers. This group is also home to the largest moon in the Solar System, Ganymede.
Dwarf Planet Moons
4 out of the 5 dwarf planets have one or more moons. Pluto has Charon, Hydra, Nix, Kerberos, and Styx, Haumea has Namaka and Hi’iaka, Makemake has nicknamed MK2, and Eris has Dysnomia. Some dwarf planet candidates also have moons as well.
.jpg "Charon in Color (HQ).jpg (351 KB)")
List of Moons
Mercury
Mercury has no moons.
Venus
Venus has no moons.
Earth
- Luna (Also known as Moon or The Moon or Earth I)
Mars
Jupiter
- Main article: Moons of Jupiter
Selected moons of Jupiter.
- Adrastea
- Aitne
- Amalthea
- Ananke
- Aoede
- Arche
- Autonoe
- Callirrhoe
- Callisto
- Carme
- Carpo
- Chaldene
- Cyllene
- Dia
- Eirene
- Elara
- Erinome
- Ersa
- Euanthe
- Eukelade
- Eupheme
- Euporie
- Europa
- Ganymede
- Io
Saturn
- Main article: Moons of Saturn
Selected moons of Saturn.
- Aegaeon
- Aegir
- Albiorix
- Alvaldi
- Albiorix
- Angrboda
- Anthe
- Atlas
- Bebhionn
- Beli
- Bergelmir
- Bestla
- Calypso
- Daphnis
- Dione
- Eggther
- Enceladus
- Epimetheus
- Mimas
- Pan
- Pandora
- Prometheus
- Rhea
- Titan
- Telesto
Uranus
- Main article: Moons of Uranus
Selected moons of Uranus.
Neptune
- Main article: Moons of Neptune
Selected moons of Neptune.
Pluto
Dwarf Planets And Dwarf Planet Candidates
Selected moons of dwarf planets and candidates.