The Year of Pluto: New Horizons TV - Universe TV - The Universe TV - Chris McKay - Mark Twain - How the Universe Works TV - Solar Empire TV - Alien Planet Earths TV - Fire Maidens from Outer Space 1956 - Red Dwarf TV -
Two more moons, making the current total of five, and that Pluto is a genuine mini-planetary system … Perhaps 70% rock and 30% ice. The Year of Pluto: New Horizons, 2015
Voyager’s next port of call was Saturn. It had taken two probes over three years to reach here. Even from Earth the rings are clearly visible. But Voyager discovered that they were wafer-thin. They’re composed of millions of separate rings each made of countless fragments of rock and ice. Above them hovers strange dark shadows thought to be grains of dust swarming in Saturn’s powerful electomagnetic fields. Slightly smaller than Jupiter, Saturn is still 750 times bigger than Earth. And like Jupiter it’s orbited by its own miniature planetary system of moons. Universe: Planets
Neptune has a complex system of moons – thirteen have been discovered so far. The Universe s1e11: The Outer Planets, History 2007
Neptune’s largest moon, Triton, is roughly the size of Earth’s moon; it is the coldest object in our solar system ever observed by astronomers. ibid.
Lurking in the shadows of the solar system are worlds so chemically active and misshapen they border on the bizarre. These are the moons surrounding the planets of the solar system. The Universe s2e5: Alien Moons
Before the 1990s most astronomers agreed that there were only 34 moons in the solar system. Most of those were regular moons like our own, spherical bodies that orbit their host planet in the same direction it rotates. ibid.
A moon also known as a satellite is a celestial body that orbits a planet. Or a smaller object such as a dwarf planet or asteroid. About 240 moons exist in our solar system alone. And yet Earth’s Moon is the only satellite in the solar system that can perfectly eclipse the sun. The Universe s3e10: Strangest Things
I’m for moons; you can keep the planets. Dr Chris McKay, NASA
Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody. Mark Twain
Jupiter and Saturn have over sixty moons each. The gas planets also have another special feature: rings. How The Universe Works s1e6: Extreme Planets, Discovery 2010
In our own solar system there are just eight planets. But orbiting six of those planets are moons. Lots and lots of moons. More than three hundred of them. And each one of them is different. How the Universe Works s1e8: Alien Moons
Each moon is unique, but they all have one thing in common. All moons are natural satellites held in place by gravity. But moons do more than just orbit planets. They help stabilise the planets in their orbits and keep the machinery of the solar system running smoothly. ibid.
On the international space-station astronaut Don Pettit was experimenting in zero gravity. He put grains of salt and sugar inside a plastic bag, and instead of floating apart they began to clump together. This is how planets and moons build up. ibid.
The story of moons is the story of gravity. Gravity holds moons in orbit. It heats up their insides and shapes their surfaces. In the end it controls everything about moons, even their survival and destruction. ibid.
The outer reaches are weird and wonderful. Lakes of liquid methane on a moon that resembles early Earth in a deep freeze. A moon that spews brimstone. Another that vents nitrogen. Moons that celebrate the exotic and the eccentric. Moons however rugged that are mere creatures of their gigantic masters. Solar Empire: Edge of Darkness, Discovery 1997
Exo-moons are the stuff of science fiction. Alien Planet Earths, Discovery Science 2014
Where’s the thirteenth moon? Fire Maidens from Outerspace 1956 starring Anthony Dexter & Paul Carpenter & Susan Shaw & Harry Fowler & Sydney Tafler & Jacqueline Curtis & Rodney Riak & Maya Koumani & Owen Berry & Richard Walter et al, director Cy Roth, aboard space-ship
I humbly name this moon – Rimmer. Red Dwarf s12e3: Timewave, Rimmer, BBC 2017