 Moons of our Solar System
Moons
- moons are the natural satellites of planets – most are small rock globes that continually orbit the planet – held in place by the planet’s gravity.
- as of October 2008, more than 176+ known natural moons in our Solar System.
- every planet in our Solar System has a moon or some moons, apart from Mercury and Venus.
- very few of the moons have atmospheres – including Saturn’s moon Titan, Jupiter’s Io and Neptune’s Triton.
One of the moons have atmosphere – Saturn’s moon Titan
- Jupiter’s moon – Ganymede, largest moon in the Solar System.
- second largest is Saturn’s moon – Titan; icy-cold, and is only moon with thick atmosphere of nitrogen gas. (wikipedia – Titan)
- smallest moons are icy lumps just a few kilometers across, rather like asteroids.
Icy lumps
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Saturn’s moon- Iapetus
Saturn’s moon – Iapetus
Colour map of Iapetus
- Iapetus; white on one side and black on the other side.
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Saturn’s moon – Enceladus
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Saturn’s moon – Enceladus
- Enceladus; only 312 miles across, and its icy surface reflects almost all the sunlight.
- a largely icy world.
- Cryovolcanic activity in Enceladus is sending geysers of water ice particles out from underneath the surface.
“Tiger stripes”
- The Cassini spacecraft has imaged these geysers spouting from so-called “tiger stripes†vent areas on this moon.
- Enceladus is now known to have a subsurface ocean made of liquid water – images from the Cassini spacecraft helped mission scientists deduce and prove the existence of that ocean.
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List of natural satellites
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