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There is an even smaller moon (a captured M-type asteroid) called Lepton orbiting at only 1,000 miles (1,600 km). [ 50 ] The 1956 Tom Swift, Jr. juvenile novel, Tom Swift on the Phantom Satellite , features a new moon entering Earth orbit at 50,000 miles (80,000 km) altitude. [ 51 ]
Irregular moons are probably minor planets that have been captured from surrounding space. Most irregular moons are less than 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) in diameter. The earliest published discovery of a moon other than Earth's was by Galileo Galilei, who discovered the four Galilean moons orbiting Jupiter in 1610. Over the following three ...
The sizes and masses of many of the moons of Jupiter and Saturn are fairly well known due to numerous observations and interactions of the Galileo and Cassini orbiters; however, many of the moons with a radius less than ~100 km, such as Jupiter's Himalia, have far less certain masses. [5]
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.
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 a new moon orbiting Uranus — the first spotted in nearly 20 years — and two new moons around Neptune.
Saturn's moon Mimas, for example, has a major axis 9% greater than its polar axis and 5% greater than its other equatorial axis. Methone, another of Saturn's moons, is only around 3 km in diameter and visibly egg-shaped. The effect is smaller on the largest natural satellites, where their gravity is greater relative to the effects of tidal ...
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 ...