Moons

The last quarter moon appears after the full moon. If your finger against the crescent moon makes a “b” shape, then it is waxing (crescent). The rest of the Moon is also sometimes faintly visible during most of this phase because the Earth also reflects sunlight back at the Moon. Interestingly, in this phase the … Read more

A new study claims the basin may contain a huge chunk of metal larger than the Big Island of Hawaii. Although Oceanus Procellarum may or may not be an ancient impact crater, the Moon is covered with impact craters. On the fateful day of its collision, the energy of the impact carved a deep bowl-shaped … Read more

Darwin’s formula can only be reconciled with modern estimates of the Moon’s age and distance if its typical recent recession rate is reduced to about one centimeter per year. Of course, a few billion years after that, the sun will derail the Moon completely, and the Earth as well, when it runs out of fuel, … Read more

In addition, the current angular momentum of the Earth-Moon system was too low to be explained by a rotationally unstable Earth throwing off enough material to form the Moon. This produced a large amount of debris in Earth’s orbit, which in turn coalesced into the Moon. Canup, suggests that the Moon and Earth formed from … Read more

Let’s start with the “super” part. The eclipse coincides with a supermoon: a full moon that occurs when the natural satellite is at or near its closest point to Earth during its elliptical orbit. The word “Super” comes from the term “supermoon,” a phenomenon in which the full moon occurs at the same time as … Read more

Waning means that it shrinks and becomes smaller, while gibbous refers to the oval to round shape. The orientation of the waning Moon depends on the time, date, its location and the Moon’s position in the sky. The orientation of the waning gibbous Moon depends on the time, the date, its location, and the Moon’s … Read more

Phobos is one of the two moons that orbit the planet Mars. It takes its name from the son of Ares, literally meaning “fear”. However, there is little to fear about Phobos, as most of the time it spends its days quietly orbiting Mars, and one day in the future, it will actually be destroyed. … Read more

Deimos is one of the smallest moons in our solar system, and one of the two moons that orbit around the Mars, the planet. It takes its name from the Greek son of Ares, which when translated into English, literally means “dread”, or “terror”. But does this small moon really deserve such a vicious name? … Read more

Although many people have heard about Ganymede, they may not know all the details about it. Ganymede is one of the most well known moons because of its vast size. It orbits around the planet Jupiter, and it’s the third furthest moon from the planet itself. And as one of the many different planets within … Read more

If you’re trying to learn more about the solar system, then it’s worth looking at different moons. You’ve undoubtedly come across quite a few, with one of the best known moons being Enceladus. It is the sixth largest moon that orbits Saturn from quite a close proximity. So, let’s look at some facts about Enceladus … Read more

If you’re looking to learn some facts about the moon Mimas, then you’re in luck. Mimas is one of the well known moons that orbits the planet Saturn, and it is one of the most well known too. Let’s look at some facts about the moon Mimas. Mimas Moon Facts Mimas has a radius of … Read more

There are many facts to learn about the moon Rhea. It orbits around the planet Saturn, and it’s Saturn’s second largest moon, which is why it is one of it’s more well known moons. Like many other moons of Saturn, it takes it’s name from one of the Titans of Greek mythology. Let’s learn a … Read more

The second largest moon in our entire solar system is named Titan, and it orbits the planet Saturn. Though astronomers aren’t quite sure about Titan’s origin, we know that it formed very early in the Solar System‘s lifetime. Let’s look at some facts about the moon Titan. Titan Moon Facts Titan has an estimated radius … Read more

If you’re looking to learn more about Saturn‘s moons, then you’re going to want to look at Iapetus. As the third largest moon of Saturn, it’s quite far out from the planet and it has a unique shape which is loosely spherical. Lets look at some interesting facts about the moon Iapetus. Iapetus Moon Facts … Read more

If you’re looking to find out more about the moons of our solar system, then Hyperion is an interesting one to look at. It doesn’t have the typical orbital patterns most moons do, and it definitely doesn’t have the typical shape either! Let’s look at some facts about the moon Hyperion. Hyperion Moon Facts Hyperion … Read more

Phoebe is one of the most interesting moons that orbits the planet Saturn. It orbits it at a very far distance – the furthest out of any of the major moons of Saturn. For many years it was thought that Phoebe was a stray asteroid that somehow made it’s was into Saturn’s gravitational pull. However, … Read more

Dione is one of the moons that orbits the planet Saturn. It is the fifteenth largest moon in our solar system, and one of the four moons discovered by Giovani Cassini (the others being Rhea, Iapetus and Tethys). It was founded more than 330 years ago, and is interesting because it has an atmosphere made … Read more

Oberon is one of the moons of the planet Uranus. It is the furthest from the planet out of the major moons, and it is the second largest of them too. On it’s surface, this moon is covered in ice, and has various different canyons and craters. Let’s look at some facts about Oberon and … Read more