Like a big pizza pie
February 28, 2013 1:19 PM   Subscribe

Wired: The Most Badass Moons of our Solar System Mimas | Europa | Io | Enceladus | Hyperion | Iapetus | Charon | Triton | The Moon | Asteroid Moons | Titan | Phoebe
posted by slogger (19 comments total) 17 users marked this as a favorite
 
It's not high-priority or anything but I kind of hope someone figures out what the fuck is going on with Iapetus before I die.
posted by theodolite at 1:24 PM on February 28, 2013 [2 favorites]


Return to the Night! You've no business here!

Also, is it "The Moon," "Moon," or "Luna?"
posted by the man of twists and turns at 1:36 PM on February 28, 2013


Let's not forget:

The Moon.
posted by Fizz at 1:39 PM on February 28, 2013


So we're finally going to get some good pictures of Pluto and Charon in two years? Whoo!
posted by eugenen at 1:56 PM on February 28, 2013


That second Triton link should say Titan.

It's amazing how varied the various moons are. In some ways they more interesting than the planets they orbit.
posted by DarkForest at 2:24 PM on February 28, 2013


There was a pretty good In Our Time about our Moon a while back.
posted by benito.strauss at 3:01 PM on February 28, 2013


I have a serious obsession with Europa. To think that something could be living under 100km of ice in a black sea millions of miles away really does it for me.
posted by jimmythefish at 3:35 PM on February 28, 2013 [1 favorite]


Oh, BTW, Titan is responsible for the most badass science story title yet: Scientists plan to sail robot boat on methane lake of Saturn's moon Titan. That's straight out of Lem's Cyberiad.
posted by benito.strauss at 3:46 PM on February 28, 2013 [1 favorite]


I thought this post would be linked to this breaking news - Vulcan is now a moon in our solar system! Seems only logical, captain.
posted by Metro Gnome at 4:08 PM on February 28, 2013


I still think it's amazing that we've landed a craft on EFFING TITAN and taken pictures of our planet from Saturn.
posted by Dr. Zira at 6:46 PM on February 28, 2013 [1 favorite]


I still think it's amazing that we've landed a craft on EFFING TITAN..

I can not tell you how pissed I am that we've only landed one probe on Titan and no other moon of Saturn or Jupiter.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:02 PM on February 28, 2013 [2 favorites]


ALL THESE WORLDS ARE BRANDON BLATCHER'S EXCEPT EUROPA ATTEMPT NO LANDING THERE.
posted by Dr. Zira at 7:32 PM on February 28, 2013 [1 favorite]


One of the amazing things I learned in the last year is you can see Jupiter's moons with some cheap binoculars. A pair of $30 50x10 can resolve them, but a bit more zoom helps. You don't even need a really dark sky. Jupiter is easy to spot: it's the super bright thing overhead about an hour after sunset right now, it follows the same path in the sky as the sun and the moon. Point your binocs at it and enjoy a view that no human could see until 400 years ago. And the 4 moons you can see are always dancing about, fun to see.
posted by Nelson at 7:38 PM on February 28, 2013


And the 4 moons you can see are always dancing about, fun to see.

And the fact that what they are dancing about is Jupiter, and *not* the Earth, is probably the simplest, most undeniable proof that the Earth is not the center of the universe. You're seeing the death of the epicycle.
posted by benito.strauss at 8:18 PM on February 28, 2013 [1 favorite]


One of the amazing things I learned in the last year is you can see Jupiter's moons with some cheap binoculars. A pair of $30 50x10 can resolve them, but a bit more zoom helps.

I have taken pictures with a Canon PowerShot G11 that clearly show the Galilean moons. It's incredibly satisfying to look up at the sky, use some cheap equipment, and verify 'they're there!'.
posted by mazola at 10:49 PM on February 28, 2013 [1 favorite]


When I was young, a family friend, for some reason, asked us to store his twelve inch wide, six foot long telescope in our garage. One night, I believe I was in fourth grade, there was either a lunar eclipse or something, but we missed it. So, there we are, having rolled this telescope out onto the street, just sort of looking around, and then, bam, Saturn. Seeing Saturn through that telescope was, up until that point in my life, one of the most amazing experiences I'd had. It still is.
posted by Ghidorah at 11:59 PM on February 28, 2013 [2 favorites]


Because Space! Is! Awesome!
Space Colonies as Imagined in the 1970s (via)
The History of How We Discovered All the Planets in the Solar System

Seems silly to have two open Space! posts.
posted by Mezentian at 11:07 PM on March 1, 2013


Indeed, we should have 3 or 4, because SPACE.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:25 AM on March 2, 2013


Sheer lunacy!
posted by benito.strauss at 12:31 PM on March 2, 2013


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