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At the IAU General Assembly in July 2004, [2] the WGPSN suggested it may become advisable to not name small satellites, as CCD technology makes it possible to discover satellites as small as 1 km in diameter. Until 2014, names were applied to all planetary moons discovered, regardless of size. From 2015, some small moons have not received names.
Including these large moons, 24 of Saturn's moons are regular, and traditionally named after Titans or other figures associated with the mythological Saturn. The remaining 122 are irregular, and classified by their orbital characteristics into Inuit , Norse , and Gallic groups, and their names are chosen from the corresponding mythologies the ...
Planetary Names: Planet and Satellite Names and Discoverers "Upper size limit for moons explained" Kelly Young. Nature (vol 441, p. 834) 14 June 2006; Images of planets and major moons (not to scale) The Planetary Society – Moon Montage(s) Album of moon images by Kevin M. Gill; The Atlas of Moons by the National Geographic Society
Pages in category "Satellites orbiting the Moon" The following 19 pages are in this category, out of 19 total. This list may not reflect recent changes. A.
A montage of Jupiter and its four largest moons (distance and sizes not to scale) There are 95 natural satellites of Jupiter with confirmed orbits as of 5 February 2024. [1] [note 1] This number does not include a number of meter-sized minor natural satellite thought to be shed from the inner natural satellites, nor hundreds of possible kilometer-sized outer irregular satellites that were only ...
The Galilean moons are named after Galileo Galilei, who observed them in either December 1609 or January 1610, and recognized them as satellites of Jupiter in March 1610; [2] they remained the only known moons of Jupiter until the discovery of the fifth largest moon of Jupiter Amalthea in 1892. [3]
The English proper name for Earth's natural satellite is typically written as Moon, with a capital M. [19] [20] The noun moon is derived from Old English mōna, which stems from Proto-Germanic *mēnōn, [21] which in turn comes from Proto-Indo-European *mēnsis 'month' [22] (from earlier *mēnōt, genitive *mēneses) which may be related to the verb 'measure' (of time).
The habitability of natural satellites is the potential of moons to provide habitats for life, though it is not an indicator that they harbor it. Natural satellites are expected to outnumber planets by a large margin and the study of their habitability is therefore important to astrobiology and the search for extraterrestrial life .