Dear Tom,
The moon revolves around the Earth, and other planets in the solar system have a few moons. Do any of those moons have their own moons?
–Robert Miller, Chicago
Dear Robert,
You might be surprised to learn that the population of moons in our solar system is considerably larger than “a few.” The Earth has one, but Jupiter has at least 60 and Saturn boasts a minimum of 52. We suggested to astronomer Dan Joyce of the Cernan Earth and Space Center at Triton College that it would seem theoretically possible for moons to have moons, but conflicting gravitational fields might pull them out of orbit.
Joyce responded: “Yes, it’s theoretically possible for moons to have moons, but no, there are none known. By the way, our own moon does have artificial satellites that are not in any danger of being yanked out of orbit any time soon.”
———-
Write to: ASK TOM WHY, 2501 Bradley Pl., Chicago, IL 60618 or: asktomwhy@wgntv.com
Weather Report is prepared by the WGN-TV Weather Center, where Tom Skilling is chief meteorologist. His forecasts can be seen Monday through Friday on WGN News at 11:30 a.m., 5:30 p.m. and 9 p.m.
WGN-TV meteorologists Steve Kahn, Richard Koeneman and Paul Dailey plus weather producer Bill Snyder contribute to this page.
IN THE WEB EDITION: For updated weather news, forecasts by ZIP code and local radar images, go to chicagotribune.com/weather or wgntv.com
