The human being has a curious mind by nature, hence the great success of our blog. Jokes aside, one of the main characteristics of the human being is his enormous curiosity, that which has led him to advance as species much more than the others that inhabit our planet. Within humans, children take the palm. There is nothing more curious than the mind of a child. If not, tell them to Juna Kollmeier, an astrophysicist at the Carnegie Institution Observatory, to whom your son asked: "Do the moons have moons?"
Although technically it is possible that the moons have moons, the truth is that it seems unlikely and in the next article we will see why. Join us to discover if the moons have moons and if there are examples of this phenomenon, in the smallest part of the Universe that the human being knows!
So, the moons have moons?
Before covering this question we must remember how extremely problematic it is simply to define a planetary body. Let's not forget that there are still people who are discussing about Pluto, only and exclusively because 12 years ago a member of the International Astronomical Union considered it " a dwarf planet "
Even the concept "moon" is not entirely clear , since we have seen moons orbiting many different types of objects: planets, dwarf planets and even asteroids.
We could say, then, that a moon is a world that is orbiting another world. If so, could it be true that moons have moons?
A Kollmeier document, the result of an investigation in this field, which can be said to have not yet been officially validated, suggests that a moon of moon could only exist if it was less than 6 miles in diameter and, in addition, had a gravity strong enough so that the moon did not shoot out into space . And if we curled the curl, the lunar moon would have to have enough space to not crash against the moon or the planet that its moon was orbiting. Complicated, right?
It is really difficult to imagine that moons have moons, but it is still more difficult to simulate them. However, Kollmeier's paper shows that some moons in our solar system have enough space to have a moon. An example of this that we say could be Titan, which is a moon of Saturn, or even our own moon, which has enough space to have a moon.
Moon with own name
As for the name, another dilemma arises: What should be the proper name of a moon that is orbiting another moon? The most accepted name in the network is "Moonmoon" and it has become very popular. However, Kollmeier's article speaks of the term "submoons". Some publications like Quartz suggest names like: moonitos, moonettes or moooons. While magazines like Smithsonian They opt for perhaps a little smarter options such as fogs, square moon or nested moons.
Kollmeier joked with the number of names that were proposed in different media and ended by saying:
"The IAU will have to decide"
Recall that the IAU is the International Astronomical Union and are the same that do not agree with the Pluto issue; Whether or not it is a planet. So, before a subject that seems much more controversial as it is if the moons have moons, we assume that the discussion is, at best, guaranteed.
Up to here the theory of why we could answer yes, to the question of whether the moons have moons. However, the reality is that to date no evidence of its existence has been found . Probably because of that innocent question of the son of Kollmeier, the researchers do not renounce the possibility of finding an example that accredit the hypothesis that they hold. What is clear is that researchers love to decipher enigmas and with this theme they have a good one on the table. Let's see what it takes to find a moon of the moon.
It is amazing what houses the space and what we still have to discover. Many times, when touching these types of topics, we realize that our whole world is like a grain of sand in the immensity of the universe that surrounds us.
Even within our own planet we have an infinity of things yet to be discovered, such as what hides the vastness of the oceans . Or the amount of new animal species that almost every day.
We would like you to leave us your comments to know what you think about these investigations, or how, if they were to discover that it is true that some moons have moons, that could affect us. What could change our lives or the future? Or you think it's just to satisfy the curiosity of what is out there. Write us! We will be happy to read you.