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Its eight regular moons are grouped into the planet-sized Galilean moons and the far smaller Amalthea group. They were named after lovers of Zeus, the Greek equivalent of Jupiter. Among them is Ganymede, the largest and most massive moon in the Solar System. Its 87 known irregular moons are organized into two categories: prograde and retrograde.
There are 293 confirmed moons in our cosmic neighborhood. By studying these worlds, astronomers hope to learn about ancient asteroid collisions, space volcanoes, and the origins of life itself.
A subsatellite, also known as a submoon or informally a moonmoon, is a "moon of a moon" or a hypothetical natural satellite that orbits the moon of a planet. [3] It is inferred from the empirical study of natural satellites in the Solar System that subsatellites may be rare, albeit possible, elements of planetary systems. In the Solar System ...
Montage of planets and some moons that the two Voyager spacecraft have visited and studied. It is the only program that visited all four outer planets. A total of nine spacecraft have been launched on missions that involve visits to the outer planets; all nine missions involve encounters with Jupiter, with four spacecraft also visiting Saturn.
The researcher team explained that a planet-moon system with a highly eccentric orbit is more likely to host one of these circumbinary polar “moons,” which would in turn drive retrograde ...
Astronomers have discovered three previously unknown moons around Uranus and Neptune, the most distant planets in our solar system. The find includes one moon spotted orbiting Uranus — the first ...
This is a list of space probes that have left Earth orbit (or were launched with that intention but failed), organized by their planned destination. It includes planetary probes, solar probes, and probes to asteroids and comets, but excludes lunar missions, which are listed separately at List of lunar probes and List of Apollo missions.
Missions to the Moon have been numerous and include some of the earliest space missions, conducting exploration of the Moon since 1959. The first partially successful lunar mission was Luna 1 (January 1959), the first probe to leave Earth and fly past another astronomical body.