Johnnyaardvark Posted March 22, 2014 Share Posted March 22, 2014 Interesting reading http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-26172181 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dawson Posted March 22, 2014 Share Posted March 22, 2014 Interesting that it calls the asteroids companion a moon; i've not started the moon course yet so will be interested to see what the criteria are for something to be categorised as a "moon". Jd Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stash Posted March 22, 2014 Share Posted March 22, 2014 Isn't a "moon" an object that is controlled thru gravity and orbits the object that exerts the gravitational pull. Although I would have thought you could call the rings of Saturn moons using that definition. Fine line I guess - unless this "moon" also exerts a gravity field but they are not that big Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Perkil8r Posted March 22, 2014 Share Posted March 22, 2014 According to the course so far, a moon is an object of significant size which is gravitationally bound to a planet or dwarf planet etc not an object bound to the host star. To clarify, I mean an object that orbits a body which is orbiting the host star. Pluto's moon is so large (in comparison with Pluto) that they are almost considered to be a binary dwarf planet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnnyaardvark Posted March 22, 2014 Author Share Posted March 22, 2014 I think the term satellite would be much more appropriate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dawson Posted March 22, 2014 Share Posted March 22, 2014 Interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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