In our Solar System, do any of the satellites have satellites of their own?

Question

In our Solar System, do any of the satellites have satellites of their own?

Answer 1

so i would translate your question to something like...

Is there a moon having a moon itself...?



not that i would know of..



and i would say its difficult (but not impossible) for such an object to exist.



imagine the planet and its moon on a surface and their gravity to produce a kind of dent in this surface.

now both rotate around a center of mass, causing these dents to move over the surface.

this may not work out for good with smaller objects flying around in such a system.

it would fall into such a 'dent' sooner or later, beeing consumed by the moon or the planet.

the chances are small that a third object enters the system with the exact speed and vector to get caught by the smaller mass.

however theoretically such objects can exist.

about how long .. is a another story



I would call that a 'curiosity'

a similar curiosity has been observed with Asteroid 'Ida' found to have a small satellite named 'Dacthyl'.

however Ida is not a moon.

Answer 2

I do not know of any. I know that some asteroids (and one famous dwarf planet with a dog name) have satellites.



One problem may be a gravitational tug of war.



For example, using the equation for the force of gravity:



F = G*m*M / d^2



It is possible to calculate the distance around each planet where the force from the sun equals that from the planet. Inside this distance, the planet wins the tug of war; outside this distance, the Sun wins.



In general, planets do not have "natural" satellites outside this limit. By natural, I mean satellites that would have formed in orbit around the planet. The one big exception is our Moon, located well outside Earth's limit. That is the main reason why some people refer to the Earth-Moon system as a double planet (but it is not, according to the proper definition).



Around the giant planets, there are a few small things that orbit just a bit outside this limit. They are obviously captured asteroids, not satellites that formed at that location.



If you do the same kind of calculation for satellites, you can calculate the distance at which the satellite's planet wins and the distance at which the Sun wins. The satellite only wins inside the smaller of the two and, in all the cases where I did the calculation, this distance is small -- very small. Plus, the interference from the planet (and the Sun) would constantly change the "satellite's moon's" orbit enough that it would eventually crash or go on its own orbit around the planet.



So, even if it is not impossible, the calculations do convince me that it would be improbable.



We have placed satellites around our own Moon, but they were always temporary things.

Answer 3

There is no known natural satellite of a moon of a planet. There are some asteroids that have satellites though.

Answer 4

The planets are technically satellites of the Sun, so, yes!



Also, keep in mind that on the Apollo missions, the space capsule was in orbit around the moon while the lunar module was on the moon's surface. So our own moon has had an articial satellite.

Answer 5

Planets and their moons...



Earth

-The Moon

Mars

-Phobos

-Deimos

Jupiter

-Metis, Adrastea, Amalthea and Thebe

Io

Europa

Ganymede

Callisto

Leda, Himalia, Lysithea, Elara, Ananke, Carme, Pasiphae and Sinope

Recently discovered moons

Saturn

-Pan and Atlas

-Prometheus and Pandora

-Epimetheus

-Janus

-Mimas

-Enceladus

-Tethys, Telesto and Calypso

-Dione and Helene

-Rhea

-Titan

-Hyperion

-Iapetus

-Phoebe

Recently discovered satellites

Uranus

-Cordelia, Ophelia, Bianca, Cressida, Desdemona, Juliet, -Portia, Rosalind, Belinda and Puck

Miranda

Ariel

Umbriel

Titania

Oberon

Caliban, Sycorax, Prospero, Setebos, Stephano, and Trinculo

Neptune

Naiad, Thalassa, Despina and Galatea

Larissa

Proteus

Triton

Nereid

Answer 6

No, because the main planet would atract them in different orbits. There is also a rule that keeps the satellites in a certain distance with each other and has to do with gravity.

Answer 7

No, not that I know of. The gravity of most satellites is not sufficient to capture a satellite of its own.

Answer 8

Not unless you count the planets as being satellites of the sun.

Answer 9

obtainable, sure. stumbled on, as of yet, no. Europa, the 2nd Galilean moon of Jupiter, is understood to be a good place the place existence can exist. Liquid water is contemporary below the ice crust, and it gets a good little bit of extreme potential radiation that could set off the formation of biomolecules. Enceladus, a moon of Saturn, additionally has liquid water. in spite of the indisputable fact that, that's understood to be too a procedures away to obtain the potential needed. in spite of the indisputable fact that it is not governed out.

Answer 10

It would not be possible. The gravity of the parent planet would so disrupt the satellite's satellite that its orbit would be chronically disrupted.

Answer 11

Yes, the planet Saturn has 2 moons that have tiny moons of their own but those smaller moons would've got pulled out of orbit and became part of Saturn's rings.

Answer 12

I know a couple of asteroids have small orbital bodies; but outside of the ones made by man (round the moon), I'm not familiar with any.

Answer 13

Not for long. Any orbit around a moon wouldn't be stable over a long period because of it's proximity to the planet.

Answer 14

I'm sure it does occur on Saturn's moons but as said, not for long.

Answer 15

I don't think so! They have their own gravity!

Answer 16

no