This article is from the series "The Solar System" where we will be sharing interesting facts about everything, from the origin of the Solar System to the mysterious massive planet 9. Please follow our social media accounts to get regular updates.
During the creation of the Solar System, the initial Protoplanets went through a lot of collisions. These collisions not only structured the system but also created partners of some planets. These partners are the moons which not only orbits the planets but also stabilise them. Some planets just trapped astronomical objects to orbit around them which became their moons. While the total number of moons in the Solar system is around 200, there are a few who display very interesting features.
Here are some interesting facts about some fascinating natural satellites aka Moons (Part 1):
19 moons in the solar system are large enough to be gravitationally rounded. They would be considered planetary or dwarf planets if they were in orbit around the Sun
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Most irregular moons are less than 10 km (6.2 mi) in diameter
Appendix: Prograde Orbit, Retrograde Orbit
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There are 2 systems which are found with 4 rings
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The Moon ( ☽ , चन्द्रमा ), after Jupiter‘s satellite Io, is the second densest satellite in the Solar System among those whose densities are known
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The Earth‘s spin is slowing in the reaction of the moon’s increasing distance from the planet
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The far side is often inaccurately called the “dark side”, but it is in fact illuminated as often as the near side: once every 29.5 Earth days. During the new moon, the near side is dark
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They were once believed to be filled with water. They are now known to be vast solidified pools of ancient basaltic lava
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The main scientific objective of Chandrayaan-2 is to map the location and abundance of moon water on Moon
on 6th September 2019, Vikram lander lost communication with the ground base just before landing
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It is planned to be the second crewed mission of the Artemis program and the first crewed lunar landing since Apollo 17 in 1972
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Phobos gets closer to Mars by about 2 meters every one hundred years, and it is predicted that within 30 to 50 million years it will either collide with the planet or break up in a planetary ring.
Deimos’s orbit is slowly getting larger, this moon is expected to finally escape Mars‘ gravity
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The escape velocity of moon Demios is just 20 km/h
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Moon Io contains a 200 km wide lake of molten lava, among many
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Auroras have been observed around the Moon Ganymedian poles
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Europa’s surface temperature averages about 110 K (−160 °C; −260 °F) at the equator and only 50 K (−220 °C; −370 °F) at the poles, keeping Europa’s icy crust as hard as granite. The heat from tidal flexing causes the subsurface ocean to remain liquid and drives ice movement similar to plate tectonics
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Callisto does not show any signatures of subsurface processes such as plate tectonics or volcanism. There are no signs that geological activity, in general, has ever occurred. It is thought to have evolved predominantly under the influence of impacts
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Source: Wikipedia
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