Moons of the Solar System Part 1

Many people have seen the moon in the night sky rising in the east and setting in the west, but did you know, many planets in outer space have more than one moon? Some planets, such as Jupiter, have so many moons that astronomers are still discovering new ones, even today! In this blog, we'll be learning about some of the main moons and their unique features! Please note that some planets, such as Mercury, will not be mentioned because they do not have any moons of their own, while others, such as Neptune, have moons that have little to no information about them!

Phobos

Discovered on August 17, 1877 by Asaph Hall, Phobos is one of the two moons of Mars. It is named after one of the Greek sons of Ares, which is equivalent to the Roman god of Mars. The word Phobos translates to fear. Orbiting Mars three times a day, its location "is so close to the planet's surface that in some locations[,][...] it cannot always be seen" (NASA, 2020). A unique feature about Phobos is that it is actually on a collision course with Mars. In fact, it gets closer to Mars "at a rate of six feet every hundred years" (NASA, 2020). Because of this, scientists theorize that it will "crash into Mars in [about ]50 million years or break up into a ring” (NASA, 2020). Scientists also theorize that Phobos may actually be a captured asteroid, though there is contradicting evidence that says otherwise. Temperatures on Phobos vary from about -170 degrees Fahrenheit to about 25 degrees Fahrenheit. Another unique feature of Phobos is its impact crater named Stickney; Stickney is six miles wide, and its impact caused "streak patterns across the moon's surface" (NASA, 2020).

Deimos

Smaller than Phobos, Deimos is the second moon of Mars and was also discovered by Asaph Hall on August 11, 1877. It is also named after one of the Greek sons of Ares, and its name translates to "dread". Its revolution around Mars is about 30 hours and its surface can be described as "small and lumpy" with many craters (NASA, 2020). Because of meteorite strikes, Deimos "has a thick regolith" that potentially runs "as deep as 328 feet" (NASA, 2020). Regolith is essentially "a layer of [...][loose] debris" (NASA, n.d.).

Moon

As mentioned before, the Moon is a familiar object to many, but it may be surprising to learn that there is more to the Moon than meets the eye. For example, did you know that the "Moon's presence helps stabilize the planet's wobble and moderate our climate" (NASA, 2021)? In addition, it also causes the tides on Earth. Its atmosphere is very thin and is called an Exosphere ("the outermost region of [a ...] atmosphere") (NASA, 2019). The Moon's surface is covered with impact craters created by "asteroids, meteoroids, and comet strikes" (NASA, 2021). Because of this, the surface of the Moon has been reshaped "into fragments ranging from huge boulders to powder" (NASA, 2021). Temperatures on the Moon vary from about -280 degrees Fahrenheit to about 260 degrees Fahrenheit. Some fun facts about the Moon is that it is slowly getting an inch farther and farther from Earth each year and it is the only place, besides Earth, that humans have visited in space thus far. Furthermore, scientists have reason to believe that the Moon may have formed as a result of a collision of a "Mars-sized body [that] collided [with the] Earth 4.5 billion years ago" (NASA, 2021). In addition, while originally scientists believed that there was no presence of water on the Moon, they were proven wrong in 2008, when an Indian mission named Chandrayaan-1 "detected hydroxyl molecules spread across the lunar surface" (NASA, 2021).

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Thank you for reaching the end of this blog! We hope you learned something new about some of the moons of the Solar System. Stay tuned for Part 2, as we'll continue to learn about the rest of the moons! Be sure to like, comment, and share! If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us by going to the Contact Form located at the top right. Follow us on Instagram for more content! And as always, keep gazing skywards!

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Bibliography

NASA. (2019, June 28). Exosphere. NASA. Retrieved July 15, 2022, from

https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/exosphere/en/

NASA. (2020, June 26). Deimos. NASA. Retrieved July 15, 2022, from

https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/moons/mars-moons/deimos/in-depth/

NASA. (2020, June 26). Phobos. NASA. Retrieved July 15, 2022, from

https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/moons/mars-moons/phobos/in-depth/

NASA. (2021, August 9). Earth's moon. NASA. Retrieved July 15, 2022, from

https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/moons/earths-moon/overview/

Regolith - NASA. (n.d.). Retrieved July 15, 2022, from https://curator.jsc.nasa.gov/lunar/letss/regolith.pdf