• saltesc@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    To be fair, we didn’t know there were more until Galileo showed up late to the party with his telescope.

    • jmcs@discuss.tchncs.de
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      1 year ago

      And technically the Moon is the only Moon. The “correct” term for what’s colloquially called “moon” is “natural satellite”.

      • Deme@sopuli.xyz
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        1 year ago

        A moonlet moonette is a natural satellite of a moon without being a moon itself. A planet is also a natural satellite of a star. The use of the word “moon” as a common term for natural satellites of planets is well established in professional terminology.

        • Zekas@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          What, no.

          A moon is a natural satellite. Our moon, Europa, Titan etc. A moonlet is a very small natural satellite. Earhart in Saturn’s orbit for example. A moon of a moon is a moonmoon or subsatellite.

          • Deme@sopuli.xyz
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            1 year ago

            Fair, I messed up the names there. Moonette is the synonym of that that I was thinking of.

            But a satellite (natural or artificial) is any object that orbits around a celestial body. The Earth is a satellite just as the Moon is one. Subsatellite is just the satellite of a satellite, but that depends on context. Moons fit that definition, but aren’t usually considered subsatellites because we don’t usually think of planets as the satellites of the Sun that they are.