Transcript The Moons of Other Planets

The Moons of Other Planets
•The moons of other planets range in
size from very small to as large as
terrestrial planets.
•Venus and Mercury have no moons.
•All of the outer planets have
multiple moons.
•Some moons orbit their planets
backwards!
•Moons may be some of the most
bizarre and interesting places in the
solar system.
Chapter 16-4 Part 2 Part 2
The Moons of Mars
• Phobos and Deimos are
small, oddly shaped satellites.
They look much like asteroids.
• One possibility is that these
two moons are asteroids that
were caught by Mars’s gravity.
The Moons of Jupiter
• Jupiter has more than 60 moons. The four
largest were discovered by Galileo in 1610.
• Ganymede is the largest. It is larger
than the planet Mercury.
•Io is the most volcanically active body
in the solar system.
•Recent information suggests Europa
may have liquid water beneath its icy
surface.
Callisto may also have water
beneath is surface.
The Moons of Saturn
• Saturn has at least 47 moons.
Titan is the largest moon of
Saturn. It has an atmosphere
700 km thick composed of nitrogen.
The Moons of Uranus
•Uranus has at least 27 moons. One
smaller moon is called Miranda. It’s
patchwork surface may have been
caused by an impact that shattered
the moon and caused it to reform.
The Moons of Neptune
Neptune has 13 known moons. Triton
is the largest. Triton orbits in
Neptune in retrograde. It is
geologically active and has a thin
atmosphere of nitrogen gas.
The Moon of Pluto
Charon has a period of revolution that
is the same as Pluto’s period of rotation.
So, one side of Pluto always faces
Charon and if you were standing on
Pluto, Charon would seem not to move!