Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
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]
The moons of the trans-Neptunian objects (other than Charon) have not been included, because they appear to follow the normal situation for TNOs rather than the moons of Saturn and Uranus, and become solid at a larger size (900–1000 km diameter, rather than 400 km as for the moons of Saturn and Uranus).
The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It orbits at an average distance of 384,400 km (238,900 mi), about 30 times the diameter of Earth. Tidal forces between Earth and the Moon have synchronized the Moon's orbital period (lunar month) with its rotation period at 29.5 Earth days, causing the same side of the Moon to always face Earth.
The acceleration due to gravity on the surface of the Moon is approximately 1.625 m/s 2, about 16.6% that on Earth's surface or 0.166 ɡ. [1] Over the entire surface, the variation in gravitational acceleration is about 0.0253 m/s 2 (1.6% of the acceleration due to gravity).
The regular moons of Neptune are likely examples of this, as the capture of Neptune's largest moon—Triton—would have severely disrupted the existing primordial moon system. Once Triton was tidally dampened into a lower-eccentricity orbit, the debris resulting from the disruption of the primordial moons re-accreted into the current regular ...
Earth is orbited by one permanent natural satellite, the Moon, which orbits Earth at 384,400 km (1.28 light seconds) and is roughly a quarter as wide as Earth. The Moon's gravity helps stabilize Earth's axis, causes tides and gradually slows Earth's rotation. Tidal locking has made the Moon always face Earth with the same side.
The gravity of Earth, denoted by g, is the net acceleration that is imparted to objects due to the combined effect of gravitation (from mass distribution within Earth) and the centrifugal force (from the Earth's rotation).
The actual Hill radius for the Earth-Moon pair is on the order of 60,000 km (i.e., extending less than one-sixth the distance of the 378,000 km between the Moon and the Earth). [9] In the Earth-Sun example, the Earth (5.97 × 10 24 kg) orbits the Sun (1.99 × 10 30 kg) at a distance of 149.6 million km, or one astronomical unit (AU). The Hill ...