July 5, 2020
By: Haris Ahmad[1]
Moons are the natural satellites of a planet. These natural satellites orbit their planet just like an artificial satellite that we launch into orbit does. Most of the moons are formed by the debris that orbits a planet that is formed by collisions with other celestial bodies.
As we all know that our planet Earth also has a natural satellite called Luna or moon. Luna has been orbiting planet Earth from approximately 4.5 billion years. It was formed due to the collision of a Mars-sized planet called Theia with Earth. The debris formed by the collision made our very own Moon.
The moon is moving 3 cm away from us each year which means that it will at a specific time leave the Earth's orbit. Though it will take a long time.
Moreover, till today, Jupiter was the moon king of the Solar System being home to 79 confirmed moons. It has been managing all these moons without any problems due to its enormous size taking into account that it is a gas giant about which, I have explained a lot in my previous blogs. Some major moons of Jupiter include Ganymede (which is the largest in the Solar System), Europa, IO, Calisto. All of these moons like many others have formed due to the disk of debris orbiting the planet.
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| https://www.space.com/7-jupiter-largest-planet-solar-system.html |
In the second place of the moon king competition in our Solar System is Saturn which is known to have 62 confirmed moons. Similar to the other moons, Saturn’s moons have also formed by the debris that orbited the planet long ago. Some of Saturn's common moons are Titan, Enceladus, Mimas, Rhea, and Tethys. Among these, the largest is Titan which also has great chances of finding life.
However, a team led by Scott S. Sheppard at the Carnegie Institution for Science and using the Subaru Telescope on Hawaii’s Mauna Kea have confirmed 20 more moons of the planet Saturn. This has bumped the planets’ confirmed moons to 82. This surpasses Jupiter which is known to have 79 moons. Making Saturn the new moon king.
One of these moons is the farthest one orbiting the planet. Two of these moons take two years to orbit the planet, while the other 18 moons take more than three years to orbit. Taking into account the characteristics in orbit of these moons, astronomers have suspected that these moons could have been part of a much larger moon that broke into pieces long ago.
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