Is the movement of the satellites (moons) of a planet coplanar, like the planets being coplanar around the local Sun?
$\begingroup$
$\endgroup$
3
-
2$\begingroup$ With coplanar, do you mean the inclination? No, not necessarily; for instance the smaller jovian moon can have inclinations of >160°. See en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moons_of_Jupiter $\endgroup$ – Alexander Janssen Apr 14 '14 at 4:37
-
$\begingroup$ By coplanar, I mean, the orbits are on the same plane. For example, the orbits of the planets moving around the sun are coplanar $\endgroup$ – user1394 Apr 14 '14 at 13:50
-
$\begingroup$ Well, Mercury has an inclination of ~7° and Venus about 3.4°; if that's coplanar, then the answer is no. Especially smaller moons can have very high inclinations. $\endgroup$ – Alexander Janssen Apr 14 '14 at 15:39
Add a comment
|
$\begingroup$
$\endgroup$
Inner moon orbits tend to low inclinations with regard to planet's equatorial plane. Charon is an exception to this general rule. Nineplanets.org has a nice data base.
