What differentiates a moon from a planet? (No factoids please)?

Question

And can moons have things orbiting them like smaller moons. If so is there any observations of this. Also if a planet has multiple moons do they ever collide or will collide in the future based on speed differences and paths of a possible future collision.

Answer 1

A moon has no life on it what so ever and usually circles a planet whereas a planet has life on it and circles the sun. The only moon they think that might have life on it that they're not too sure about is the moon titan one of saturns moons with and ice surface and water underneath but they won't know until one their rockets they've sent off actually gets there (they sent it a few years back should take about another 6 years or within).

Answer 2

Simply put a Moon is in orbit around a planet. Achieving orbit around a Moon would be a very difficult thing for a piece of space junk, rock, whatever would constitute a space body. Although it's not totally beyond possibility a space rock would have to have the velocity to enter our system and then somehow slow down enough to achieve lunar orbit which is a very complicated balancing act. In theory a ship could orbit the moon at a very few thousand feet rather than miles because of the lack of atmosphere. As long as you were higher than any of the mountains. That would really ruin your day. You would have to balance speed and gravity to achieve this orbit but it would be possible with the right propulsion system which asteroids do not come equipped with. Collisions of Moons is common that is what is going on all the time in the rings of Saturn and it is thought that rings are a result of the immense gravity of that gas giant which pulverized a potential rocky moon that never had a chance to form.

Answer 3

A lot of questions: Planets, Planetoids, dwarf plants (ahh poor Pluto) and some asteroids orbit a star. Moons are typically classified as a body that orbits a planet. It is conceivable that a moon could have a moon in orbit around it, but it may be pulled away from that orbit by the nearby planet if the planets mass is great enough and you end up with two moons. It is certainly possible that moons can collide and the end result could look like a lumpy moon or if the collision had sufficient force, you could end up with a ring structure similar to Saturn.

Answer 4

Moons are supposed to orbit around Planets.

A Planet may have mnore than one moon. In fact, some planets have lots of Moons... Jupiter has 63 Moons.
Saturn has 34 named moons and another 15 that have
not been named yet.

If a planet has multiple moons, over time the gravitational pulls of the various moons tend to make them spread out
into a kind of balance or harmony where they tend to live
happily; as opposed to being tugged this way and that,
all the time. This balance occurs over a very long time and
if it does not occur in a natural way, then most likely an odd man out situation will result in which one or more of the unlucky objects will crash into another. It has been suggested that this is what happened on Saturn and created the Rings that we see around that planet, the debris and dust from the collision formed into multiple rings.

Answer 5

Planets revolve around the sun. Moons orbit around planets.There are also size stipulations to qualify both. If its orbiting a moon then its usually just called a satellite moon. This happens with Jupiter or Saturn newly discovered all the time. Collisions have happened in the past including are own moon.Things are more steady now and collisions with out outside interference are unlikely.

Answer 6

The difference between a moon and a planet is entirely semantic. A planet orbits a star. A moon orbits a planet. That's pretty much it. The composition of moons and planets has far more to do with their position in the solar system (bodies closer to the sun have more rock and less ice) than with what they orbit.

Answer 7

A planet is an object that orbits a star, a moon is an object that orbits a planet. There are no observations of another object orbiting a moon, but it is possible.

Answer 8

if it orbits a star its a planet, if it orbits a planet its a moon. theres is no definate size to be classed as either one. you can have a planet 6 times bigger than jupiter, with a moon the size of earth. but if a planet has 75 times jupiters mass, itll be a star.
and no if a planet has multiple moons, the moons normally wont collide
Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune have multiple moons. but if they get too close to the planet, they get ripped apart

Answer 9

A planet is the thing that a moon goes around.

Answer 10

ya they will crash into each other look at saturn. and if they go around a planet than it is a moon.