Ask Ethan #97: Can Moons Have Moons? (Synopsis) [Starts With A Bang]

“What was scattered, gathers.
What was gathered, blows away.” –Heraclitus

When you’re looking around in our Solar System, we’ve got the Sun at the center, the planets orbiting them, and then moons orbiting the planets in turn.

But why is that necessarily the limit? Couldn’t we have “moonlets” or some other, smaller satellites orbiting the moons?

Image credit: Frank Hettick / Fine Art America, via http://ift.tt/1Ib5L6K.

It seems like there’s no reason that shouldn’t be the case, but yet we don’t yet know of any in the Solar System. Is there a reason we don’t have any, or do we fully suspect they’re out there, waiting to be discovered?

Image credit: Robert Hurt (IPAC), via http://ift.tt/N0iaxy.

Find out on this week’s Ask Ethan!

from ScienceBlogs http://ift.tt/1On0Miz

“What was scattered, gathers.
What was gathered, blows away.” –Heraclitus

When you’re looking around in our Solar System, we’ve got the Sun at the center, the planets orbiting them, and then moons orbiting the planets in turn.

But why is that necessarily the limit? Couldn’t we have “moonlets” or some other, smaller satellites orbiting the moons?

Image credit: Frank Hettick / Fine Art America, via http://ift.tt/1Ib5L6K.

It seems like there’s no reason that shouldn’t be the case, but yet we don’t yet know of any in the Solar System. Is there a reason we don’t have any, or do we fully suspect they’re out there, waiting to be discovered?

Image credit: Robert Hurt (IPAC), via http://ift.tt/N0iaxy.

Find out on this week’s Ask Ethan!

from ScienceBlogs http://ift.tt/1On0Miz