The Strange Concept of Moons

We on Earth have just one moon, but some planets have dozens of them. Not to mention others don’t have any. Can you imagine living on a planet with seven moons?

What are moons?

"Moons are natural objects that orbit planets. Scientists usually refer to them as planetary satellites (human-made satellites are sometimes called artificial moons). There are about 170 moons in our Solar System. Most of them are in orbit around the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn. Small planets tend to have few moons: Mars has two, Earth has one, while Venus and Mercury do not have any."—Nasa4Kids

How many moons?

Neither Mercury or Venus have a moon.

Earth just has one moon... for now.

Mars has two moons. Their names are Phobos and Deimos. Don’t you wish our moon had a cool name like that?

Next are the giant outer planets. They have lots of moons!

Jupiter has 79 known moons.

• The most well-known of Jupiter's moons are Io (pronounced eye-oh), Europa, and Callisto. Jupiter also has the biggest moon in our solar system, Ganymede.

Saturn has 53 moons that have been named and nine moons awaiting confirmation.

• They’re unconfirmed because we’re waiting to get more information about them. If all of these moons get confirmed, Saturn will have 62 moons.

Uranus has 27 moons that we know of. Some of them are half made of ice.

Lastly, Neptune has 14 named moons. One of Neptune's moons, Triton, is as big as dwarf planet Pluto.

The Earth's Moon

The Moon is the primary force responsible for the tides of the Earth's oceans. On those rare occasions when a solar eclipse occurs, the orbital position of the Moon dictates the nature of the eclipse.

Eclipse

On October 27, 2004, the Moon was eclipsed as it passed into the Earth's shadow. The refraction of light from the Earth's sunrises and sunsets create the orange colour. When a solar eclipse occurs with the Moon at its perigee, a total eclipse occurs. If an eclipse occurs when the Moon is at its furthest distance, an annular eclipse occurs.

The dark side of the Moon

We can never see one side of the moon from Earth. I'm not kidding, we really can't and the reason why is purely coincidental.

“The Moon is tidally locked to the Earth,” said John Keller, deputy project scientist for NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter project. “The Moon does rotate, but it rotates at the same speed that it rotates around the Earth.”

In other words, "the Moon completes one full rotation on its axis in the time it takes to orbit the Earth," so "the same side is always turned toward us," explains Catherine Woods.

This video was made by NASA.

Since we can't see the far side of the Moon from Earth, here is a picture of it taken during Apollo 16.

It's pretty weird to see the other side... right?

Hello. Nice to meet you! How are you? Hmm... this feels like a really one-sided conversation... why don't you follow me on social media so I can get to know you too!

About the Author

I started blogging about two years ago, and my collection of blogs and articles is getting pretty impressive. I’ve taken online classes for writing, and even some classes about the art of blogging itself. It would be really awesome if you join the adventure and maybe even help me think of what to write about next. If you would like to submit some feedback or ideas, you can always tweet me on Twitter.

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Work Cited

Abrams, Abigail. “Here's How to Watch a Full Moon, Lunar Eclipse and Comet.” Time, Time, 9 Feb. 2017, time.com/4666332/full-moon-lunar-eclipse-comet-watch/.

“In Depth | About the Moon – Moon: NASA Science.” NASA, NASA, 18 Apr. 2019, moon.nasa.gov/about/in-depth/.

NASA, spaceplace.nasa.gov/how-many-moons/en/.

“Moons.” ESA, www.esa.int/kids/en/learn/Our_Universe/Planets_and_moons/Moons.

Woods, Catherine. “Why Don't We Ever See the Far Side of the Moon?” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 7 Aug. 2015, www.pbs.org/newshour/science/never-see-far-side-moon.

Video, NASA. “EPIC View of Moon Transiting the Earth.” YouTube, YouTube, 5 Aug. 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMdhQsHbWTs.