Re:Jupiter has 10 more moons we didn't know about
by baseethrowaway on Thursday July 19, 2018 @07:08AM
(#17565255)
Natural satellite == moon.
"Natural satellite" is a subset of "satellite", thus what you'd call them is correct by definition. Let's let the astronomers with credibility play and name the objects.
Re:Jupiter has 10 more moons we didn't know about
by jovial_cavalier on Thursday July 19, 2018 @07:45AM
(#17565417)
So does Saturn have billions of moons?
Re:Jupiter has 10 more moons we didn't know about
by Nimelrian on Thursday July 19, 2018 @09:56AM
(#17566273)
Saturn's rings are a bit more special. They are actually only 10-100m thick. There's still a difference (however small it may be) between those and kilometer sized rocks.
Re:Jupiter has 10 more moons we didn't know about
by jobigoud on Thursday July 19, 2018 @11:39AM
(#17567322)
No need ti invoke Saturn, Jupiter has its own rings.
Re:Jupiter has 10 more moons we didn't know about
by dalbasal on Thursday July 19, 2018 @07:12AM
(#17565271)
Do astronomers get as fiery about taxanomy as biologists do? I kind of had the impression they're easy going about naming, just more wary of upsetting young enthusiests. I heard there were many sternly worded letters from 9 year olds, after the demotion of Pluto.
Slightly related, are all the particles in (eg) Saturn's rings wver referred to as moons?
Re:Jupiter has 10 more moons we didn't know about
by kersny on Thursday July 19, 2018 @08:44AM
(#17565659)
Seems like they do: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1805.04115.pdf
Re:Jupiter has 10 more moons we didn't know about
by dalbasal on Friday July 20, 2018 @01:18PM
(#17576944)
Oh wow. This is basically a paper about astrologists. Was it published under astrology or anthropology?
Re:Jupiter has 10 more moons we didn't know about
by magduf on Thursday July 19, 2018 @12:45PM
(#17568075)
I agree, however with so many "moons" now known and more being discovered constantly, and so many of those being really nothing more than asteroids and possibly fragments and debris from past collisions, and in light of the change of the definition of "planet", I would not at all be surprised if the astronomers decided to change the definition of "moon" to also include hydrostatic equilibrium, and then captured asteroids like Mars' to be renamed "minor moons" or similar.
Re:Jupiter has 10 more moons we didn't know about
by baxtr on Thursday July 19, 2018 @07:06AM
(#17565248)
From the above article:
So as it stands, a moon is simply any natural body in orbit around a planet or other non-stellar object (so asteroids can have moons, and itβs even possible for a moon to have its own moon, although none have been discovered so far).
Re:Jupiter has 10 more moons we didn't know about
by maxerickson on Thursday July 19, 2018 @07:05AM
(#17565245)
Behemoth ISS is 0.0728 kM across.
But moon anyway mostly just means natural satellite.
As a layman with no astronomical credibilty I'd call those satellites, not moons.