Questions tagged [moonlet]

Questions about particularly small natural satellites, such as the propeller moonlets embedded in Saturn's rings.

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6 votes
2 answers
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Can moons exist inside a planet's roche limit?

Saturn's rings are inside its own Roche Limit - the limit beyond which bodies start disintegrating due to the tidal forces of the parent body. But as every rock in the ring can be regarded as a ...
Astro Noob's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
108 views

Should only spherical satellites be considered 'moons'? [closed]

Since Titan and Ganymede fall into the same category as Deimos and Phobos or the components of planetary rings, the category of moons, it's like if all asteroids were considered planets. Tiny ...
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2 votes
1 answer
289 views

Are Saturn's rings stable?

Saturn's rings contain many moonlets that shape the rings of Saturn. The structures in the rings of Saturn around moonlets are similar to those in protoplanetary disks around newly formed planets, ...
usernumber's user avatar
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4 votes
2 answers
481 views

What is the difference between a moon and a random chunk in the rings

Jupiter has 79 (known) moons, Saturn 82, Uranus 27 and Neptune 14 (numbers come from Wikipedia). These planets also all have rings. The rings are made up of chunks of rock and ice. There also are ...
usernumber's user avatar
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10 votes
4 answers
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What exactly is a "moon"?

Recently some new moons of Jupiter were discovered. However the moons are pretty damn small indeed - only a few kilometers wide. That makes me wonder if they should even be called moons in the first ...
Allure's user avatar
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