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> Anyone know what the largest moon of a moon of planet would be? I had to think about this for a minute. At first thought a moon of a moon didn’t seem to be p
by freetime2 4y ago
> Anyone know what the largest moon of a moon of planet would be?
I had to think about this for a minute. At first thought a moon of a moon didn’t seem to be possible as the gravity of the moon’s planet would certainly make an orbit around a moon unstable. But apparently if the moon is large enough, and separated enough from its planet, it can in theory have a moon. Saturn’s moons Titan and Iapetus, Jupiter’s moon Callisto, and Earth’s Moon would be capable of hosting submoons. [1]
No submoons have yet been found, though.
[1] https://academic.oup.com/mnrasl/article/483/1/L80/5195537 https://academic.oup.com/mnrasl/article/483/1/L80/5195537
- twawaaay 4y ago> At first thought a moon of a moon didn’t seem to be possible as the gravity of the moon’s planet would certainly make an orbit around a moon unstable. No, that's not true. Moons can have moons with stable orbits. Not every moon can, though. If you think about it, the Moon already orbits Earth which orbits Sun. Our Moon could have satellites but the issue is that it is lumpy. It is not uniform in density and this causes huge gravitational anomalies which prevent long term stable orbits. If Moon was uniform it could have stable orbits.