Whether it’s the most interesting, the most beautiful, or the strangest one for you, which is, in your opinion, the best moon in the Solar System?
Could it be the Earth’s own moon, being so large in comparison to the size of our Planet? Perhaps little Phobos and Deimos of Mars? The Galilean moons of Jupiter? Titan, Saturn’s largest moon and the only one in the Solar System with a thick atmosphere? Farther out, you have the moons of Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto…
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My wife’s pert arse. Especially when she takes me by surprise with it.
Enceladus, Saturns moon, because it meets all of the conditions required to harbor life, even if it’s only about the size of Arizona.
Gotta go with our boy, our own moon. There’s something to be said about appreciating what you’ve got. It stabilizes our planet, protects us from minor meteors, gives us a beautiful ocean tides, and looks amazing almost every night we see it. We have an idea of what all the other cool moons in our solar system might look like, but ours is pretty great right in front of us. Love the mystique of basic biological chemicals found on it in recent times. It’s been there since we were just kids looking at the sky, letting us know the universe is way bigger than we can imagine.
It’s also, by pure coincidence, the exact size and distance to make it appear to be the same size as the sun in the sky, making total eclipses really cool
Our moon is definitely the most important body in the solar system after the sun and earth. There’s a good chance life is only possible on earth because of the moon.
The thing is, here on earth, we have this wealth of life and diversity, but we only have this diversity because we have a diversity of elements to work with. On most planets, we don’t see this diversity of elements, the same proportion of heavy elements have to be there somewhere, but we don’t see them on the surface. We’re pretty sure that this is because on other planets we don’t see plate tectonics. The process of plate tectonics churns and mixes the earth, it brings heavier elements that would normally be trapped underground back up to the surface.
The crazy part, is that we’re not 100% sure why we have plate tectonics, and why all the other planets in our solar system don’t. But a leading theory is that plate tectonics are sustained by the tidal forces of a very large moon.
If this interpretation is accurate, we really owe so much to the moon. Its continued gravitational force on the earth is what has made everything (life, intelligence, society, technology) possible.
Also, in a Drake equation/Fermi Paradox context, the perfect moon may very well be the extremely rare event that makes the earth truly special.
Luna is the only moon in the Solar System which is appropriately-sized relative to its planet’s distance from the Sun and its own orbital distance to create impressive total solar eclipses. If a moon is too small, it won’t cover up the Sun fully, and if it is too big, it will cover up all the light and you would see nothing but darkness.
It also isn’t going to do it forever, and hasn’t always done it
I was always partial to Miranda, Uranus’ closest moon. Despite having a diameter of only 470km, it features the tallest cliff in the solar system at 20km high!
Because Uranus “rolls” around the sun like a bowling ball instead of spinning like the other planets, Miranda revolves perpendicular to most other moons in the solar system. This causes some pretty crazy seasons: they last more than 20 years, often with the sun visible (or not) the entire time.
Also, a 2023 study found that there’s a good chance Miranda has a subsurface water ocean!
I think Europa because if I remember right it’s one of the most likely spots for life?
Enceladus is right up there too
Europa Clipper is on the way!
Europa. Because it’s possible - although not likely - that there’s an intelligent civilisation under the ice
It’s already quite unlikely that there is any life there, but if there was it would probably something similar to extremophile bacteria on earth, not anything close to an intelligent civilisation. Where did you get that?
You do realise that you haven’t contracted me in your post, don’t you?
Obviously Luna is up there, but my personal favorite is Pluto’s moon Charon. It’s so large it turned Pluto into a binary dwarf planetary system, the only binary system in our solar system. It also shares an atmosphere with Pluto.
- Our Moon, the protector of Earth.
- Europa, the possibility of extraterrestrial life and infinite ice.
- Titan, clouds and liquid methane on the surface.
- Enceladus, snowball.
- Io, the most interesting looking moon.
Io, hands down.
It’s volcanic because it’s being squished and pulled by Jupiter’s gravity.
The view of Jupiter from there would be super impressive as well. From what I can gather the apparent size is 19 degrees, or 40 times the moon viewed from earth.
Still not quite as extreme as it appeared in the 1998 game Battlezone sadly
Europa. Desperate to know if there’s anything alive under all that ice.
The one that affects my life the most; Luna.
My least favorite moon is Phobos. That shit is basically a boulder. Bitch ass little baby moon.
We’ve got a pretty great view of Luna, so I know that one the best. Also, the full eclipse in totality was one of the most beautiful things I’ve seen with my own eyes.
I think Titan is the most intriguing; it’s got a freaking atmosphere! Also, it’s got lots of ice. It’s familiar and alien at the same time.
I think I read a novel with the bread basket theme at some point, but I can’t quite place it. Heinlein, maybe.
Are you thinking of “The moon is a harsh mistress” by Heinlein? That has a theme about growing a lot of wheat on the Moon and exporting it to Earth.
I read that book a long time ago and liked it, even though it had so many flaws.
No. I’ve read “The moon is a harsh mistress” (oof, it did NOT age well), but I’m thinking of a different novel.
Doing a search now…it might have been “Farmer In The Sky”. I remember the theme being a pretty heavy “move to the frontier, throw yourself into back-breaking work, prosper” type thing, along with one character in the book making a big deal about apple trees.
All of the classics have to be read with the time period and science knowledge of the when they were written. I love Heinlein, even though he doesn’t do female characters well. When I read him as a kid, I didn’t pick up on that, plus I’m more of a realist reader for the hard science and don’t always see the deeper stuff.
he doesn’t do female characters well
Understatement of the century?
I cringed so hard reading “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress” that I nearly DNF’d it.
But, for the time it was written, it was probably one of the more progressive things published.
The Expanse!
I’ve read the Expanse (and loved it), but that’s definitely not what I was thinking of here.
Iapetus. i will not elaborate.
Galilean moons of course.
Everyone, including Galileo, thought that Earth is in the center of the universe and literally everything in the sky rotates around it. So he build a telescope, looked at the Jupiter and saw some dots. He looked later and the dots were in different configuration. After just couple of days he knew the dots orbit Jupiter. And suddenly the central believe of humanity was out the window. Not everything orbits Earth. We are not in the center of the universe. And the proof was right there, everyone could see it with their own eyes. Today it would be like proving we live in a simulation in way, that everyone can verify (but you know, without drugs and lasers). Every time I see the Galilean moons I think about it. Probably the greatest revolution in the human understanding of the universe, right there, for everyone to see.
