When a planet has a certain number of moons, it is known as having a flush moon. This occurs when at least one of the planets in the sky has an equal or greater number of moons than major moons.
The only type of major moon that exists outside of a flush moon is a perigee moon. A perigee moon has a slightly thicker edge than a regular or libation moon and is also much more massive.
Perigee and libation Moons do not occur on same bodies as similar sized but different bodies such as Earth and Mars have similar sized but different satellites.
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How many moons does Uranus have?
When it comes to planets in the star system Uranus, you can say that there are actually a lot. There are nine known moons for this planet!
You may be thinking, “nine? That’s too many!” But don’t worry, we will go through them and tell you what they are!
Each of the nine natural satellites has its own story to tell. See if you can spot each one!
Ninghui is the largest moon, with a radius of 0.5 miles (8 km). It is also the most volatile, being made of 58 different elements combined into its rocky core. The remaining orbital ingredients have been scattered throughout Ninghui’s surface. This makes it appear colored due to all the different elements present. Ninghui is also known as La Paz del Nord in Spanish because of its large southern hemisphere moon which appears larger than its smaller neighbor Moonita.
Titania
The largest moon in the Solar System is Titania. She is nearly three times the size of Neptune.
Titania is a very large planet-like object that orbits just above our sun. It takes about 6 years for this giant planet to orbit the sun and it takes only a few days for it to move across the sky.
Titania has two phases, a rising and setting one. In the morning, it appears as a small dark spot on the sun. At night, it disappears and emerges as a larger bright spot on the sun.
How many moons does Titania have? Well, during its rising and setting phases, it has two more times when it looks like four moons are circling its body.
Oberon
The largest natural satellite of Uranus is the approximately 150-mile-wide (250-kilometer-wide) Oberon. Despite its large size, this planet…
has very little we can see!
Unlike its smaller neighbours, Neptune and Pluto, which are well-known and widely visible objects in the Solar System,…
Oberon is much more secretive. Only one photo has been taken of it, and that was decades ago.
This is not a bad thing though! While we can’t see Oberon, we can still learn a lot about it.
Umbriel
While most people know the name Uranus, very few people know the planet Umbriel. It is a smaller planet that orbits a large Uranus.
Umbriel is similar in size and orbit to Neptune, but it is much further away. Its distance from Earth, at just over 114 times Earth’s diameter, makes it hard to see.
But when you do see it, you will be amazed!
Because of its close size and distance from Earth, astronomers cannot yet study Umbriel using telescopes. But because it has such an unusual shape, they can use space-based telescopes to study it.
Its unusual shape was caused by a close encounter with another planet some 1120 years ago. That encounter changed both planets enough that they now look differently sized and shaped today.
Ariel
The mysterious planet Ariel was featured in the movie Game of Thrones as the home of a dragon. While watching the movie, it was noted that this planet had a moon, and that it was called Ariel’s moon.
The moon was named after the sea goddess Ariel, who was known for her beauty and charm. She is also known as Giselle in French, meaning “beautiful one.”
Ariel’s charm can be felt in its weather system, which is referred to as a dune sea. This gives you an idea of how unusual this phenomena is compared to other planets.
It is believed that dunes form when two conditions exist at different locations on a planet: water movement and heat. When these conditions exist at different places, they create dunes.
This phenomenon is known as tectonics on a dry land continent.
Miranda
The Miranda is a medium sized planet, roughly the size of Jupiter. It is also one of the fastest moving planets in our solar system.
Miranda has three moons, Tristam, Helene, and Courtney. These small planets help make Miranda even more exciting to look at!
Despite its large size, Miranda is a quiet planet. Its only active process is its rotation, which brings it from night to day!
Its dense rotation makes for a very mysterious surface. Some spots appear to move while others don’t.
Ceres
While most people know about Mars and its moons, few people know about Jupiter and its moons. There are 6 additional planets in the solar system with a moon that orbits close to its planet.
There are 5 planets in our solar system that have Moons. These include Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and Neptune.
Neptune’s largest moon is relatively small compared to other moons. It is also the only moon with a permanent atmosphere!
Ceres has three satellites: Neukommera, Remus, and Hadassah. All of them were discovered by chance while studying Ceres’s composition. All of them have similar shapes and sizes, making it seem as if they were created by design.
Pallas
The Greek mythological figure known as Pallas is the source for the term pallas, which refers to a worker, or hammer, in Chinese engineering.
In mythology, she is associated with thunder and lightning, and her weapon is a hammer. Her name comes from the Latin word panis, meaning bread.
Pallas was one of three deities who ruled over agriculture in ancient Greece. The other two were Athena and Roma. Together, they were calledcrop gods.
Both Athena and Roma had minor roles in Roman religion, but Pallas was more prominent. She was considered the personification of agriculture and peace of mind when farming was successful.
When an asteroid approaches Earth in 2019 and 2006 comet PANSTARZA comes close again in 2023, those who are aware of this alignment can look for the moon waxing pallas at that time.