Which planet has several moons

Lastly, Neptune has 14 named moons. One of Neptune's moons, Triton, is as big as dwarf planet Pluto. Make no-bake Moon cookies! How Many Moons? More about moons! How far away is the Moon? Why is the Moon so scarred with craters? If you liked this, you may like: Make a Planet Mask! More Less. Most moons in our solar system are named for mythological characters from a wide variety of cultures. The newest moons discovered at Saturn, for example, are named for Norse gods such as Bergelmir , a giant.

Uranus is the exception. The International Astronomical Union approves an official name when the discovery is confirmed. Earth's Moon probably formed when a large body about the size of Mars collided with Earth, ejecting a lot of material from our planet into orbit. Debris from the early Earth and the impacting body accumulated to form the Moon approximately 4.

Usually the term moon brings to mind a spherical object, like Earth's Moon. The two moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos , are different. While both have nearly circular orbits and travel close to the plane of the planet's equator, they are lumpy and dark.

Phobos is slowly drawing closer to Mars and could crash into the planet in 40 or 50 million years. Or the planet's gravity might break Phobos apart, creating a thin ring around Mars. Jupiter's menagerie of moons includes the largest in the solar system Ganymede , an ocean moon Europa and a volcanic moon Io.

Many of Jupiter's outer moons have highly elliptical orbits and orbit backwards opposite to the spin of the planet. Saturn, Uranus and Neptune also have some irregular moons, which orbit far from their respective planets. Saturn has two ocean moons — Enceladus and Titan. Both have subsurface oceans and Titan also has surface seas of lakes of ethane and methane. The chunks of ice and rock in Saturn's rings and the particles in the rings of the other outer planets are not considered moons, yet embedded in Saturn's rings are distinct moons or moonlets.

These shepherd moons help keep the rings in line. Titan, the second largest in the solar system, is the only moon with a thick atmosphere.

In the realm of the ice giants, Uranus's inner moons appear to be about half water ice and half rock. The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. However, some planets have more than one moon. Jupiter has the most moons of any planet in the solar system. Jupiter has 79 moons. Of these, 72 have confirmed orbits and 52 have been named. The largest moons are known as the Galilean moons having been discovered by Galileo Galilei in These are Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto.

Ganymede, the largest moon in the solar system , is so massive in size that it exceeds even the planet Mercury. The remaining moons are classified as irregular satellites. Saturn comes in second with 62 moons of which Titan is the biggest and Rhea second. Saturn has 24 regular moons and 38 irregular moons. Titan is the second largest moon in the solar system and is also larger than the planet Mercury. Uranus is third with 27 moons of which Titania is the biggest with a coplanar orbit.

There are 13 inner moons and 9 irregular moons.