Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Of the Solar System's eight planets and its nine most likely dwarf planets, six planets and seven dwarf planets are known to be orbited by at least 300 natural satellites, or moons. At least 19 of them are large enough to be gravitationally rounded; of these, all are covered by a crust of ice except for Earth's Moon and Jupiter's Io. [1]
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.
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
All of Jupiter's satellites from XXXIV onward are named after descendants of Jupiter or Zeus, [50] except LIII , named after a lover of Jupiter. Names ending with "a" or "o" are used for prograde irregular satellites (the latter for highly inclined satellites), and names ending with "e" are used for retrograde irregulars. [28]
The Roman numbering system arose with the very first discovery of natural satellites other than Earth's: Galileo referred to the Galilean moons as I through IV (counting from Jupiter outward), in part to spite his rival Simon Marius, who had proposed the names now adopted, after his own proposal to name the bodies after members of the Medici ...
All the irregular moons (except Phoebe, discovered about a century before the others) are named after Inuit, and Gallic gods, and after Norse ice giants. [42] Some asteroids share the same names as moons of Saturn: 55 Pandora, 106 Dione, 577 Rhea, 1809 Prometheus, 1810 Epimetheus, and 4450 Pan.
For the "normal" irregular satellites, the general convention is to use names ending in "a" for prograde satellites, names ending in "e" for retrograde satellites, and names ending in "o" for exceptionally inclined satellites, exactly like the convention for the moons of Jupiter. [18]
Moon Mimas and Ida, an asteroid with its own moon, Dactyl; Comet Lovejoy and Jupiter, a giant gas planet; The Sun; Sirius A with Sirius B, a white dwarf; the Crab Nebula, a remnant supernova; A black hole (artist concept); Vela Pulsar, a rotating neutron star; M80, a globular cluster, and the Pleiades, an open star cluster