Astronomy Fun Fact #12
- Moiya McTier
- Apr 26, 2019
- 1 min read
The largest moon in the solar system is Ganymede, one of Jupiter's 79 confirmed moons. Our own Moon is the fifth largest in the solar system and is about 1/4 the size of Earth.
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MOIYA MCTIER,
Astrophysicist, Folklorist, & Science Communicator
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Great question! Moons can form in a couple different ways. Some moons, like ours, form when a giant collision knocks material away from an already formed planet. Others can form by matter slowly building up around a central massive body, kind of just like a smaller-scale version of how planets form from the leftover material after stars form.
I don't know if there's a maximum mass for a moon before it can become a planet, because moons and planets aren't differentiated based on mass. A moon is a moon if it orbits a planet, no matter how big it is.
Is there a typical ratio of total mass of all moons to planet mass? What's the largest a moon can get in terms of % of planet mass before it's not a moon anymore and it's just a... another planet?