Is Our Solar System Missing Moons?

You might be pretty confident that when a moon is there it’s there to stay, but that’s not always the case. Moons may have a history of disappearing.
Hosted by: Savannah Geary (they/them)
Correction:
05:19 Well, this is half right. The moons don't actually orbit the same distance from Mars and orbit on opposite sides of the synchronous radius. Sorry about the mistake!
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Sources:
solarsystem.nasa.gov/moons/sa...
solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/...
solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions...
news.berkeley.edu/2019/01/17/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/s...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/s...
www.nature.com/articles/s4155...
solarsystem.nasa.gov/moons/ju...
www.universetoday.com/44796/g...
arxiv.org/pdf/0812.4995.pdf
arxiv.org/abs/1801.06094
arxiv.org/pdf/1909.00285.pdf
www.nature.com/articles/s4155...
iopscience.iop.org/article/10...
Image Sources:
www.gettyimages.com/detail/vi...
www.gettyimages.com/detail/vi...
www.gettyimages.com/detail/il...
www.gettyimages.com/detail/vi...
www.gettyimages.com/detail/vi...
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
solarsystem.nasa.gov/resource...
solarsystem.nasa.gov/resource...
solarsystem.nasa.gov/resource...
solarsystem.nasa.gov/resource...
solarsystem.nasa.gov/resource...
• A "Flight" Over Jupiter
photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/cat...
www.gettyimages.com/detail/vi...
www.gettyimages.com/detail/vi...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Fr...
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
www.gettyimages.com/detail/vi...
www.gettyimages.com/detail/ph...
solarsystem.nasa.gov/resource...
www.gettyimages.com/detail/vi...
www.gettyimages.com/detail/vi...
www.gettyimages.com/detail/vi...
www.gettyimages.com/detail/vi...

[@scishowspace]

Thank you to everyone who noticed the mistake in this video! Mars's moons Phobos and Deimos do not orbit on opposite sides of Mars at the same distance! The researchers noted that the moons orbit on opposites sides of "the location where the orbital period about Mars equals the rotation period of Mars," or the synchronous radius. You can read more about this in the paper here: www.lpi.usra.edu/planetary_news/2021/03/08/exploring-the-origin-of-mars-moons/

[@MissionControlTet]

Earth also lost another moon, according to latest NASA simulation After Theia collision, materials ejected into Earth orbit coalesced into 2 objects: larger clump and the smaller one. The larger clump interacted with the smaller one, which exchanged their energy: the bigger one lost orbital energy and falling back into Earth, the smaller one received energy transfered from the larger one and pushing it into higher orbit which secured its position. The smaller clump became Luna

[@AragasiOlama-dk3km]

There were another moon After the theia collision the second moon was 3 times smaller than The Moon and it was much further from earth. The Smaller Second Moon Collided with The Moon in the Lunar South pole and Splattered it self in the surface of The Moon as a extra layer of crust the collision was cause by The Moon drifting away from the earth

[@Narmatonia]

I'm surprised you didn't mention Neptune and Triton, a prime example of lost moons. Triton makes up 99% of the mass of all Neptune's moons, suggesting that after it was captured, Neptune's other moons all collided with Neptune or Triton, or were ejected from the system altogether. Also 4:19 insert Captain America "I understood that reference" gif here

[@ivarbrouwer197]

not to split hairs that was gaining/catching a moon, not loosing a moon. Though catching Triton would probably have created chaos for Neptunes moons too. (To your credit, the Mars example didn't really seem to apply also)

[@Narmatonia]

@@ivarbrouwer197 What I meant is that Neptune likely had lots of larger natural moons, like the other giants. Then Triton showed up and scattered them, leaving only the little rocks we see today.

[@ivarbrouwer197]

@@Narmatonia probably, but not definately, afterall: where are the big moons of Uranus then? (But i'd love to see some research on that, which as you point out, this segment is sadly missing out on)

[@Narmatonia]

@@ivarbrouwer197 I wouldn't say Titania and Oberon are unusually small, they may not hold a candle to Titan or the Galilean moons, but both are bigger than Rhea. Plus with Uranus being significantly smaller than Jupiter or Saturn it makes sense it would have relatively smaller moons.

[@joearnold6881]

But… what if someone didn’t get your reference to the Captain America meme about getting a reference?

[@Salt_Master_Queue]

Chrysalis was like, "I wanna be with you, Saturn," and Saturn was like, "Keep your distance, or I'll tear you apart."

[@nunya___]

or... "I'll rip your heart out".

[@wilsonli5642]

Tearing its children apart IS appropriate for Saturn, in this case!

[@davidroddini1512]

6:26 “Maybe try inside the fridge” No keys but who the heck left a moon in here?!

[@michaelmicek]

Maybe it was planning to go someplace else and got lost.

[@technowolf1544]

Phobos and Deimos were placed that way by demons to tempt humans into testing our teleport technology on them

[@SaiyanHeretic]

Do you want to open a portal to Hell? Because that's how you open a portal to Hell.

[@masonjohnson4310]

Heavy metal intensifies

[@nathanball99]

She got their orbital distances wrong, they are not the same, not even close.

[@ikebeckman1074]

@@nathanball99 yeah I thought so, Phobos is way closer and its fate seems to be sealed, eventually reaching the Roche limit

[@krakhedd]

Nah bro Phobos is home to the Angels, Deimos to Demons and Emperor Palpatine rules Mars

[@samwill7259]

I don't think saturn "lost track" of a moon I think it now has to live with the scattered corpse of its moon orbiting around it forever more

[@General12th]

Not even forevermore. The rings are slowly decaying and will fade within another hundred million years at most.

[@QuarterLifeCrises]

I think the planet would feel like its kid is missing rather than its keys, wanting to put up missing posters all over the solar system.

[@General12th]

Naw, you know all planets secretly go _"nomnomnom"_ and enjoy their secret snacks.

[@doctorkayne]

Glad to see you are growing as a host, you sound way more confident and fluid compared to your first vids. Thank you and the team for putting out all the knowledge you do :)

[@MBMCincy63]

I prefer hearing her. She has a calming voice.

[@florinadrian5174]

Yes, she did great here. And the good script on a fascinating subject helped.

[@robertt9342]

That Saturn reference was pretty good.

[@veggiet2009]

I have theory that I had another, larger, set of keys, and the two got too close together smashing them into 1000's of key fragments all over the house. In this paper I will...

[@garethdean6382]

"Some say that my house is dusty because I don't do housework. But is it really, or is that KEY FRAGMENTS?

[@mathieuleader8601]

the moon is where all our lost socks go hahaha

[@nunya___]

At 3:34 Wait!...There's a new Jovian moon called Jaropa?

[@MBMCincy63]

And if they're not in the fridge, check the incoming door: they may be hanging in the deadbolt 🤔😂😂

[@Ngamotu83]

So what about the rings around other planets? Jupiter has a few rings, as does Uranus and Neptune. Did they get their rings by smashing some of their own moons, too?

[@alarcon99]

One more reason for me to rage hate Moonfall

[@chaosopher23]

The aftermath of comet Shoemaker-Levi say that a moon could have been what created the Great Red Spot.

[@TheReaverOfDarkness]

Mars will likely turn Phobos into a moon eventually.

[@sbadvi]

Well, this video didn’t age well. Jupiter just today surpassed Saturn with the discovery of 12 new moons.

[@_maxgray]

"Bad news for the moon, good news for anyone who likes looking at pretty planetary structures!" Savannah just gets more and more fun as they settle into being a host, that intonation was perfect 🤣

[@xINVISIGOTHx]

why are saturn's rings mostly ice if they used to be a planet

[@stargazer5784]

The moons out there contain huge quantities of ice.

[@RickySTT]

5:18 “The team noticed that the moons orbit on opposite sides but the same distance from Mars.” Since when? According to JPL, Phobos has an orbital diameter of 9400 km and an orbital period of 7.66 hours, and Deimos has an orbital diameter of 23500 km and an orbital period of 30.3 hours.

[@nathanball99]

I came here to say that. The orbital parameters are entirely different! They're not even close.

[@stile8686]

Agreed. The strange similarity is that they both have circular-ish orbits near the equator which would be strange if they are captured asteroids but they are at way different altitudes and orbit past each other all the time. I bet the writers of the paper would be astonished to hear the line about opposite sides and same distance from Mars.

[@scishowspace]

Ah. This is a mistake that got past our fact checkers! The two moons are on opposite sides of the synchronous radius, which is not the same as them being the same distance from Mars.

[@stile8686]

@@scishowspace Ah that makes a lot more sense. Thanks.

[@tolic14ever]

The link to your earlier video 6:20 ..at the end of this one, is not working.. put a (i) tag which appears in the right upper corner....or add link to descriptions, last case scenario add it pinned in the comment section. Thank you for the efort in sharing knowladge..❤

[@EliotHochberg]

Does anyone think that a sucked and Moon could be the reason for the big red spot on Jupiter? I know that the center of Jupiter is probably comparatively small, but could it be that when the moons hit they create some kind of a feature which then causes the storms to shape the way they do as we see them at the surface?

[@stax6092]

Neat.

[@ryanhiggins8869]

Found a moon in my fridge… but it was just a rump roast… so not quit a full moon, I guess

[@TheWolfHowling]

If my housekeys are ever inside the refrigerator, something has clearly gone wrong in my day/week/life

[@digitalatom6433]

Earth may have also lost a moon when the first one was formed, according to a recent simulation.

[@ThorinKyuubi]

Wait. Wait! What's the deal with Saturn's tilt and what's the other theory? You cannot just casually throw these things in the air and not elaborate further. We need to know! Come back with a video about this imediatelly! I need to know about the tilt!

What about lost moon of Poosh? 🌝

[@chippysteve4524]

Fascinating stuff and really well explained too! It's so much to take in in one go that perhaps if you spoke more slowly then a mere mortal like me wd be able to keep up in real time :-)

[@TheRealPaulMarshall]

@5:18 - How are 9000-ish km and 23000-ish km the same distance? As they appear to be going in opposite directions as seen from the surface, how do they stay on opposite sides of Mars?

[@nathanball99]

You're right, the statement is wrong.

[@filonin2]

The statement is silly and wrong and it really shows how little they know that they read it out without laughing.

[@garethdean6382]

This is actually part of the argument. The initial paper argued that the moons WERE at the same distance with the breakup leading to an increasing separation due to atmospheric drag on the innermost moon. The rebuttal claims to show that this doesn't add up. As you can guess the original claim is far from watertight.

[@alfiehaigh8412]

Thought we were getting a limp bizkit cover for a second with that intro

[@TheGahta]

2:45 that made my sides hurt 🤣🤣

[@ambeegaming76]

Jupiter eating it's moons sounds familiar lol

[@bbbenj]

Interesting.

[@e_j_]

thumbnail reminded me of the outer wilds quantumn moon 🌚

[@thomaspearce4359]

Everywhere

[@mattduncil]

I found it! They where left in the door lol

[@GoldMan-h7i]

planet nine react too chrysalis : 😭 all react too chrysalis : 😭😭😭😭😱😭😭😭

[@varamyrsickskinzz7355]

How did the astronomers suggest Phobos and Deimos get smashed apart a billion years ago? There weren't astronomers back then.

[@Blaaake]

Where does someone get a shirt with a collar that large? Goodness.

[@thesilentone4024]

What about the ort cloud.

[@CyFr]

Well I mean Earth practically stole a whole ass planet and made it into a moon.

[@nebulan]

Well, Jupiter has a moon named Metis so... she's next.

[@SAOS451316]

Venus probably also had at least one good sized moon long ago. It may have collided or got yote from the solar system.

[@patrickmccurry1563]

That seems unlikely so close to the sun.

[@SAOS451316]

@@patrickmccurry1563 That's why it's not there anymore, but the models say it is likely that it did have one once upon a time.

[@johntaggart979]

"Yote": is that the proper past tense connugation for "yeeted"?

[@SAOS451316]

@@johntaggart979 Yes it is! I find it very amusing.

[@erikswanson5753]

Saturn now has a total count of 102 moons. Jupiter has 93.

[@beerusthedestroyer875]

So how many moons did Saturn destroy because I know one moon was big enough to create that massive ring!???!!

[@mobailey6666]

What if Earth had a ring? What would we see? What if Earth didn’t have a moon?

[@erikswanson5753]

If Earth didn't have a moon I don't think we would even be here.

[@avishalom2000lm]

So 99% of our Solar System's mass is in the Sun. And of the remaining 1%, 99% of that is in Jupiter. And of the stuff orbiting Jupiter, 99% of that is in four of its moons.

[@dlatua]

5th

[@_andrewvia]

Yay Savannah!

[@_andrewvia]

- although whomever is editing the video makes it seem that Savannah never has to take a breath. They talk fast and clearly, and the tech edits out any blank moments, and the whole thing goes whoosh! Lots of information in a short time.

[@queens.dee.223]

It's always great to see Savannah.

[@derhkist]

So, Saturn ate one of his children ... interesting.

[@massimookissed1023]

It was never a moon, it was a space station.

[@General12th]

Hi Savannah!

[@grahamturner1290]

It was just a passing phase. 😎

[@faenethlorhalien]

I do the same to hamburgers when they get really close to me, but it's not tidal forces, but by mouth, that does the job, har har har MEAT.

[@Caracal-lm6es]

Missing moons? Kinda like Vulcan the missing planet?

[@RoxaneJ14]

I'm not fat, I'm just too massive for my own good 😂

[@MarkVallevand]

Andrei, You've lost another submarine?

[@FUnzzies1]

Eewwwwwww

[@osmosisjones4912]

Wonder if those super earths have early sized moons

[@SolaceEasy]

I have now watched two SciShow Space videos, and I will never watch another one again. I am intelligent, not in your target audience.

[@davedee6745]

Um, if Saturn's rings are from a torn apart moon, shouldn't the rocks and boulders that make up the rings be considered "moons" since that's what they came from. That would mean Saturn has about 1 billion moons and Neil Degrasse Tyson will be busy naming all of them.

[@francesconicoletti2547]

Tyson would be lobbying to have moon and dwarf moon separated into two categories based on some arbitrary orbital mechanics that only works for the rings of Saturn.

[@garethdean6382]

Ironically a moon is generally considered to need to have a clear orbit (Not to have CLEARED its orbit, which is different.) The ring fragments don't 'count' since they're part of a crowded system, though there are 'shepherd moons' which keep some of the rings in place or distinct. A similar issue plagues Earth, which has had a few temporary 'natural satellites' in its orbit in human history.

[@phyllisbramlett2330]

I just love the way Savannah tells us how things work. Thank you Savannah.

[@DoctorX17]

They're a natural fit!

[@DrBunnyMedicinal]

Yes, she's a great host!

[@DoctorX17]

@@DrBunnyMedicinal very great! Just an FYI, Savannah uses they/them pronouns (SciShow videos usually have the host’s name and pronouns in the description)

[@filonin2]

She's flat out wrong and doesn't realize it @ 5:18. She doesn't seem to understand what she's reading.

[@DoctorX17]

@@filonin2not all of the hosts are themselves experts on what’s being presented; often they’re simply reading a script another team wrote. So they might not understand it or recognize errors

[@filonin2]

5:18 Mars' moons DO NOT orbit opposite sides of Mars at the same distance, that is absurd. Phobos orbits more than twice as close as Deimos and hence at a different rate, so they could never remain on opposite sides of Mars for more than a few minutes. Who wrote this?! Why did Savannah read this silly thing?

[@mbdzel]

Damn. How did we lose a moon. I mean we screwed we erything ellse in tne universe up so this has to be humanities fault.. right.

[@randyselvidge5594]

Hey, Zeus ate a pregnant goddess to stop a prophecy that had Zeus' son killing him, that's the reason Athena had to get smashed out of Zeus' head.

[@Apeiron242]

Why are you asking us? YOU'RE the science communicators.

[@peter4210]

I tough this was gonna be some more nonsence about the dark matter hypothesis. I was about to go off on a rand about how correlation does not imply causation and that its been 100 years with out proof for a theory that assumes that our physics and mathematics are perfect when they are not. Thankfully I dont have too.

[@filonin2]

You assume science is based upon assumption. It is not. Look up Dunning Kruger.

[@peter4210]

@@filonin2 Never said I assumed anything, you just put words in my mouth. Look up dunning kruger

[@architude]

Is this a hypothetical revenue add raising waste of time and basic knowledge premise of how do solar systems work as we know it. Oh, yeah.

[@Charok1]

Not enough moons? I'll drop my pants then.

[@gollem148]

This video seemed too much "spun-up" to grasp all the intel, especially the part where researches proposed something and then others challenged it.

[@yergot3077]

Can you tell your CGI person to tone down the Displacement map on Mars at 5:57? Mars looks like it got scratched with coarse sandpaper.

[@PrayTellGaming]

I know I'm going to sound way too picky here, but why are you using the word "moon" instead of the proper term "natural satellite?"

[@ChrisPikeEnterprise]

Savanna talks way too fast. Please slow down…the pace is a bit frenzied and difficult to listen to and process.

[@prashantpandya2933]

Too much of assumption... Hard to believe too many what ifs

[@scrotiemcboogerballs1981]

When they reset the simulation they will fix everything 😂

[@josgibbons6777]

We're also likely missing at least one giant planet. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five-planet_Nice_model

[@justice_1337]

incoming cHrYsaLiS sUbSuRfAcE oCeAn 🙃

[@ZennExile]

I don't like the fat baby moon hypothesis at all. Simulations full of collisions and explosions are more fun.