Why We Can't Figure Out Which Planet Has the Most Moons

Which has more moons, Jupiter or Saturn? The world may never know...
or we could just change the definition of moon to only include actual spherical objects and not space potatoes

Music used:

Sources:
The History of the Known Solar System: Every Year by Geography and Space:
"The Population of Kilometer-Scale Jovian Irregular Moons" (study claiming there are potentially 600 moons of Jupiter)

[hpr]

>knows possible atmospheric composition of exoplanets
>can’t figure out the amount of moons in the solar system and define the term at all
I love humanity

[kerbalman]

Now the IAU needs to redefine what a floating rock is.

[anatoly]

Gets even more complicated when you look into temporarily captured objects and quasi moons. 2006 RH120 was a second moon of Earth for a full year.

[Jonassoe]

Astronomers don't use the term "moon" to describe objects that orbit planets. Only the Earth's moon is called "Moon". The generic term is "natural satellite, " which I think doesn't promise too much. But yes, categorizing Ganymede together with small potato-shaped rocks is kind of silly.

[ericgolightly]

This is what I was thinking. At what point does a pebble orbiting a planet become a moon?

[ozgedumanatilla]

It's even funnier when you remember that these "moons" have escape velocities lower than 10 m/s. You can practically run into orbit with these rock.

[snailinashell]

Neptune probably has the most moons, we just don't know about them. I say that since it's got the highest hill sphere of any planet and it's right next to the Kuiper Belt

[ncrwadr]

There are major moons like Mimas and dwarf moons like Amalthea.

[danfurtado]

I dont see a point of tiny asteroids becoming moons

[penny]

i have been a proponent of the pluto-charon binary dwarf planet system for ages, because that's just genuinely cooler than charon being a moon of plutos

[Meveron_The_Planet]

Suggestion:
*Moon*
_Gas Giants_
A moon is a natural satellite orbiting a planet that is spherical.
_Rocky Planets and Dwarf Planets_
A moon is a natural satellite orbiting a planet.
*Dwarf Moons*
A natural satellite that orbits a planet, but if around a gas giant or a planet that has over 15 moons, is not spherical.

[dinodude]

I think that one day, when the human species finally reaches another star system, either with an ftl drive or a long period of time, we will find an exo-planet carrying more moons than either jupiter and saturn, which only causes angry planets as there's a new number one and the didn't even know they existed because they're planetary bodies. Last I checked, we haven't even discovered an exo-moon, probably because something something, a moon orbits a planet, not a star, you'd probably have to physically go to that solar system with a hypothetical exo-planet with the most moons to even gaze upon it.

But hey, I don't know if we have already discovered an exo-moon, so don't take my word for granted

[GamingDoge]

it just depends what a moon is, if it's "a visible non-man-made object orbiting a planet" Saturn wins by a landslide, we've seen it's rings for centuries too.

[bingusbongus]

lets just make two names called moon-chad and moon-cel and all the big boys are moon-chads and all the small dweebs and moon-cels that wat mars gets to keep his moon-cels as moons (moon pilled moon-maxxer)

[HappyBeezerStudios]

Saturn is cheating, if we want to be pedantic we could count every piece of rock in the rings.
But then Jupiter also has rings.
And what is the minimum size, can we just say all planets have "unmeasurable amount of moons" and count every piece of dust.
And I totally get the issue with being the dominant object considering Janus and Epimetheus switch orbit every couple years when they pull on each other.

[thecatgod]

Yes, dwarf moon sounds like feal thing.

[lake]

This is the issue that happens when you try conforming discontinuous functions onto continuous things. Words like planet, star, moon, dwarf, are all discontinuous, is or is not. While most of measurable things are continuous. There are some things that are discontinuous, like the center of gravity being always inside or outside a body.
But, stars and blackholes and galaxies have this same issue too, not just moons and planets. The biggest stars and our sun are so different in size, as different as a small asteroid is to a huge planet or more, yet we just call them stars...
(P.S. I don't care what Pluto is, I just love Pluto ❤even before they changed its category...)

[lucasmarchezim]

This video has a stupid high quality for the amount of views it currently has.

We will watch your career with great interest young man

[michaelhowell]

Is there such a thing as a moon with a moon?

[ortherner]

I’ve had similar thoughts for a while now. Asteroid moons shouldn’t be considered real moons.