Slashdot Mirror
Moons Can Have Their Own Moons and They Could Be Called Moonmoons (atlasobscura.com)
Two astronomers have asked a question for the ages: Can moons have moons? The delightful, if theoretical, answer is: Yes -- yes, they can. Sarah Laskow, writing for Atlas Obscura: As Gizmodo reports, this particular scientific inquiry began with a question from Juna Kollmeier's son. Kollemeier, who works at the Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, recruited Sean Raymond, of the University of Bordeaux, to help her answer the question. In a paper posted on arXiv [PDF], they lay out their case that moons can have moons. The conditions have to be right -- the primary moon has to be big enough and far away enough from the planet it's orbiting for the smaller, secondary moon to survive. But, even given these caveats, they found that moons in our very own solar system could theoretically have their own smaller moons. Two of Saturn's moons and one of Jupiter's are candidates. So is our favorite moon -- the Earth's moon.
[...] One of the great challenges of talking about recursive places is deciding what call them. The prefix "sub-" can do a lot of work here: We can islands within islands "subislands," and in the arXiv paper, Kollmeier and Raymond call a moon's moon a "submoon." But there are other options. New Scientist notes that "moonmoon" has been put forth as a name for a moon's moon. For those of us who are less than fluent in meme culture: This is a reference to Moon Moon, sometimes described as the internet's derpiest wolf. Moon Moon was born in 2013, from a werewolf name generator, and soon started frolicking across Tumblr and all other places memes can be found.
[...] One of the great challenges of talking about recursive places is deciding what call them. The prefix "sub-" can do a lot of work here: We can islands within islands "subislands," and in the arXiv paper, Kollmeier and Raymond call a moon's moon a "submoon." But there are other options. New Scientist notes that "moonmoon" has been put forth as a name for a moon's moon. For those of us who are less than fluent in meme culture: This is a reference to Moon Moon, sometimes described as the internet's derpiest wolf. Moon Moon was born in 2013, from a werewolf name generator, and soon started frolicking across Tumblr and all other places memes can be found.
Welcome CowboyNeilCowboyNeil
Namaste
...no.
Palaces, barricades, threats, meet promises
Don't astronomers usually refer to them as satellites? I always though "moon" was the name of the Earth's satellite, specifically.
It should be mormoons. They're the ones that have multiple satelwifes
...because most of them don't know enough Latin.
Instead of Moonmoon, they could call them luna lunae, which means, "moon of moon."
This could give them endless opportunities for singing a rock classic.
Luna lunae
Whoa baby
Sayin, me gotta go
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah....
Finding God in a Dog
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
I guarantee Moony McMoonface will come up at some point. Probably already has.
In a world of the blind, the one-eyed man is king--and the two-eyed man is a heretic.
Obviously the official name should be "Death Stars" because when you look at a satellite in orbit around another satellite, you can clearly see "that's no moon."
Also, agreed, "moonmoon" is absurd.
I'm sorry, but your opinion seems to be wrong.
Next up, recursive Uranus jokes, with Beowulf clusters of turtles all the way down.
Table-ized A.I.
...that's no moon?
Secession is the right of all sentient beings.