LMR-059 · Planets
Moons
Some are bigger than planets. Some have oceans under ice.
§ A first look
§ Depths
Six ways into the same idea — from bedtime story to chalkboard. No order required.
L1 · Crayon
Told like a bedtime story.
For a curious 10-year-old. No jargon. Just a picture in your head.
Earth has the Moon — that big bright ball in the night sky that politely goes around us once a month. Other planets have their own moons too. Some have none. Some have dozens. Some have over two hundred (looking at you, Saturn). A few moons are tiny chunks of rock the size of a town. A few are bigger than the planet Mercury, with their own mountains and ice. One of Jupiter's moons, Europa, even has a giant ocean of water hidden under a thick shell of ice — which makes it one of the most interesting places in the solar system to go look for life that didn't come from here.
§ Strange but true
- 01Earth's Moon is drifting away at 3.8 cm per year — a fingernail's growth.
- 02Jupiter's moon Europa has more liquid water under its ice than all of Earth's oceans combined.
- 03Saturn's moon Titan has rivers and lakes — of liquid methane. It rains gasoline.
§ From the field journal
Moons
"Some are bigger than planets. Some have oceans under ice."
— observed, sketched, not yet fully understood.
§ Nearby