The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Are there minisatellites that orbit around the moons of planets?

2022-12-08T10:58:10.991Z


A moon is described as a natural satellite of a planet, so by definition, if we ask if there are moons of moons, the answer would have to be no. But if we talk about satellites of satellites the question is more interesting


Before answering the question, I first have to explain how satellites or moons are formed.

There are two ways.

In some cases, when a solar system is forming, there are collisions between objects, between dwarf planets and other dwarf planets, or between planets of relatively similar sizes.

In these collisions, clouds of debris are generated that are gravitationally linked to the planet and it is in them that moons are formed.

These moons are associated with the planet by gravity and it is very unlikely that one moon is linked to another, unless it is a very binary system, since, due to gravity, the two will be most attached to the planet with the greatest mass. and, therefore, its gravitational attraction is greater.

More information

An unknown moon of Saturn disintegrated to create its rings

The other way moons are formed is by capture.

When solar systems are forming there is a super chaotic state of many bodies colliding with each other.

What could occur here would be captures of larger bodies that, in turn, had smaller bodies captured, that is, planets with their moons.

But what happens in these captures is that we find ourselves with the problem of the three bodies, which we already know is a problem in all areas.

When a capture occurs, it is highly probable that the smaller of the bodies will be ejected because the two larger bodies act as if they were a slingshot.

So although in this type of satellite formation, in theory, it could be the case of the capture of a planet with a satellite that, when captured, would become a moon and a mini-moon associated with it, what happens is that the less massive body it's the one that takes basically all the gravitational pull and shoots out.

A very specific configuration would be needed in which the moon was a certain distance away and the moon's satellite was of such a mass that it would still be attracted to the moon and not the planet.

But it would be an extremely unlikely range of parameters.

The most probable thing is that either the body with the least mass will be thrown away or in the end everything will be dominated by the planet's gravity, so that, in the end, the satellite and its mini-satellite become two moons of the planet.

The question of the moons is very interesting.

In fact, in our Solar System, almost all the planets, even dwarf planets like Pluto, have satellites.

But there are also exceptions to highlight such as Venus and Mercury that do not have.

The rest of the bodies in the Solar System all have many moons but they are always dominated by the planet.

We are not aware of any cases, neither in our Solar System nor among extrasolar planets, in which moons with their own natural satellites have been detected.

Yes, these possible configurations have been studied in theory and what has been seen is that they are not stable configurations.

What can be given is moons with rings.

They must be very, very compact rings because if not, due to the tides, everything would deform too much.

But it has been seen, theoretically not observed, that a moon could have rings.

Also in a very restricted range.

But in theory this would be possible.

Amelia Bayo

is a doctor in astrophysics and the scientist responsible for the MOONS instrument at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Germany.

Question submitted by Hanin Ben Ayad

Coordination and writing:

Victoria Toro

we answer

is a weekly scientific consultation, sponsored by the

Dr. Antoni Esteve Foundation

and the

L'Oréal-Unesco 'For Women in Science' program

, which answers readers' questions about science and technology.

They are scientists and technologists, members of

AMIT (Association of Women Researchers and Technologists)

, who answer these questions.

Send your questions to

us@gmail.com

or on Twitter #weanswer.

You can follow

MATERIA

on

Facebook

,

Twitter

and

Instagram

, or sign up here to receive

our weekly newsletter

.

Source: elparis

All news articles on 2022-12-08

You may like

News/Politics 2024-02-24T19:13:15.630Z

Trends 24h

News/Politics 2024-03-28T06:04:53.137Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.