Moons Could Have Their Own Moons And We Might Call Them Moonmoons | IFLScience 26.10.

18, 20)19

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Moons Could Have Their !

POPULAR
Own Moons And We STORIES

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Moons Could Have Their Own Moons And We Might Call Them Moonmoons | IFLScience 26.10.18, 20)19

Might Call Them

Moonmoons
Something
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OBJECTS DEFINITELY NOT TO SCALE. JURIK PETER/SHUTTERSTOCK What The Hell

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Iceberg?

Many planets, including our own, are orbited by What You See
one or more moons. But what if these rock and ice In This Optical
celestial bodies were themselves circled by smaller Illusion Can
objects? Do such things exist, and, if so, what are Reveal How
By
they called? Your Brain
Aliyah Works
According to astronomers Juna Kollmeier from the Kovner
Carnegie Institution of Washington and Sean 11 OCT
2018,
Raymond from the University of Bordeaux, the 13:07

answer to the first question is: yes, maybe. As to

the second question, they have a few ideas, from
Neanderthal

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Moons Could Have Their Own Moons And We Might Call Them Moonmoons | IFLScience 26.10.18, 20)19

the scientific-sounding "submoon" to the much more Child May

entertaining "moonmoon", but more on that later. Have Been
Attacked And
In an analysis published in the pre-print database arXiv, Eaten By A
Kollmeier and Raymond calculate the Goldilocks conditions Colossal Man-
that would allow a submoon to stably orbit its moon without Eating Bird
being thrown off course or sheared into pieces by the
gravitational pull – also known as tidal force – from the moon’s
planet.

After making a few assumptions about the densities of moons

These Are
and submoons based on what we know about the players in
Stephen
our own Solar System, the authors conclude that only large Hawking's Last
moons – those with a radius of 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) or Messages To
larger – with wide orbits could accommodate long-lived Humanity
submoons, whose size would be proportionate to 10
kilometers (6.2 miles) and larger.
PROMOTEDby
“Tidal [energy flux] destabilizes the orbits of submoons around STORIES
moons that are small or too close to their host planet; this is
the case for most of the Solar System's moons,” they wrote.

“A handful of known moons are, however, capable of hosting

long-lived submoons: Saturn's moons Titan and Iapetus,
Jupiter's moon Callisto, and Earth's Moon.”

They add that the newly discovered moon orbiting the

exoplanet Kepler-1625b (a gas giant about six to 12 times the Mehr als nur
size of Earth, orbiting a Sun-like star located about 8,000 light- Behaglichkeit: Eine
years away) may be able to host a submoon as well, though
they don’t know enough about the object to be sure.
Fassadendämmung
FOCUS Online

reduziert…
“This system where you’ve got a giant planet and a Neptune-
sized moon that’s kind of far away from the planet is sort of the
best-case scenario for a moonmoon,” Raymond told New
This Cheap Every Driver
Scientist.
Drone Is The In Germany
However, even if it’s theoretically possible for a submoon to Most Should Have
survive the competing forces from a moon and a planet, the Amazing These Night
simplediscountfinder.com
techdiscountfinder.com
likelihood of one forming in a moon-planet environment with Invention In Driving
the correct configuration is quite low.
WEEK INGlasses
Germany
SCIENCEThat…
“Something has to kick a rock into orbit at the right speed that The
it would go into orbit around a moon, and not the planet or the IFLScience
star,” Raymond said, adding that the submoon would also get Newsletter
lost or destroyed if the moon in question migrated during its

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Moons Could Have Their Own Moons And We Might Call Them Moonmoons | IFLScience 26.10.18, 20)19

evolution, as the Earth’s moon did. Sign up today

to get weekly
At the end of their paper, Raymond and Kollmeier call for science
further studies investigating the conditions that could lead to coverage direct
submoon creation and persistence, as well as those trying to to your inbox
locate some real-world (real-galaxy?) examples.
SIGNUP
In the meantime, in the few days since the duo’s article draft
went live, the Internet has erupted into a frenzy over the
ADVERTISMENT
possibility of submoons. And, thanks to a declaration by New
Scientist, everyone is gleefully calling them "moonmoons", a
name that has been floated in the astronomy community
before.

Atlas Obscura
@atlasobscura

The term "moonmoon" has been put forth as a

potential name. Other suggestions include mini-
moon, second-order moon, and nested moons.
Atlas staffers’ contributions: Meta-moon? Moon
squared? Moony McMoonface? Tell us what you
think it should be called. trib.al/Ro75FBx
12:15 AM - Oct 11, 2018

What Do You Call a Moon's Moon?

The inexplicable delight of moon-moons, sub-islands,
and other recursive places.
atlasobscura.com

523 373 people are talking about this

Speaking with Quartz, Kollmeier said that she and her co-
author would be happy to stick with submoons, though they

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Moons Could Have Their Own Moons And We Might Call Them Moonmoons | IFLScience 26.10.18, 20)19

also approve of moonmoons, moonitos, moonettes, and

moooons.

“IAU [the International Astronomical Union] will have to

decide!” she added. Clearly, she has a sense of humor, but us
poor laypeople urgently need to know whether "moonettes" is
a serious contender or a joke. Because, wow, that would be
great on a T-shirt.

Juna A. Kollmeier
@thejunaverse

If you ask me, they are "Submoons" (hence the title

of our article!!!) But the internet has brought forth a
wide variety of names and associated joy and for
this, I'm delighted: Moonlet, Moonmoon, Moonito,
Moonette, Moonlet, Grandmoon,
Metamoon...#letsasklevi
12:49 AM - Oct 11, 2018
48 18 people are talking about this

[H/T: New Scientist]

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6 Comments Sort by Newest

Add a comment...

Christopher Whelan
So not Moomins ?
Like · Reply · 1w

Tony Davidson
sheer speculation -- such fun, but a waste of space in a
Science journal
Like · Reply · 1w

Fredrus Santos
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Moons Could Have Their Own Moons And We Might Call Them Moonmoons | IFLScience 26.10.18, 20)19

Fredrus Santos
They are called exomoons
Like · Reply · 1w

Don Lee
Wouldn't that term be for moons in solar systems
other than this one?
Like · Reply · 1w

George Dowson
What you've neglected to mention is that the parent moon
to the submoon must not be tidally locked to the parent
planet, as the locking mechanism would also sap energy
from the submoon's orbit.
This would mean you'd need a large moon (to have
enough rotational momentum to keep spinning over
geological time) in a wide orbit (to lessen the tidal lock),
far from the parent planet. This moon would have
immense orbital angular momentum. That energy would
have to come from somewhere and makes the
spontaneous formation of a moon capable of supporting
a stable submoon extremely unlikely.

There are none in the solar system that we are aware of,
and I suspect it's very rare in the wider galaxy.
Like · Reply · 2w

Sean Raymond
You are exactly right -- the whole point of our
paper was to look at tidal constraints on moons of
moons. See my blog post
(https://planetplanet.net/2018/10/09/can-moons-
have-moons/) or the article itself
(https://arxiv.org/abs/1810.03304) for more
details.
Like · Reply · 1 · 1w

Anthony McKeever
Moonlings? :)
Like · Reply · 2w

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