satellite, planetoid (maybe), asteroid, or moon. I don't think a moon (moon1) could really have a moon (moon2) though, the planet's gravity would gobble up moon1's moon2 and steal it I think.

some of the moons around jupiter and saturn are as far away as the earth is from the sun

are you saying that those two planets have more pull than the sun

at the moment i don't know of any moons with their own moons


i was thinking moonlet but it lacks something

(both from google)

The earth is ~6x further away from the sun than jupiter's most distant moon is from jupiter. There are also the size and speed differences that would help. I'm sure someone will come along and explain the whole thing, but I can't immagine a moon capturing something without the planet capturing it instead.

yes but saturn has 3 sets of moons in the same orbit

and has two other moons that change orbit with each other ever four years

this is from the nine planets

and besides the smallest known bodies with moons are a couple of astriods

The reason for asking this is?

your right it is a stupid question

(m1+m2)/d or something like that. Newton's law of universal gravitation. the sum of the masses divided by the distance between them. and i think theres supposed to be some constant that gets multiplied (?). Basically a planet would catch a moon before another moon would since the plant has such a greater mass.

I feel all warm inside

and if moon 2 has already been captured by moon 1 i believe if the planet rips moon 2 from moon 1 one or both of the moons may be destroyed or they end up shareing the same orbit

I didn't say it was stupid danielost... I was just asking 'why' you were asking this question... like is it an issue in the game or something... or are you trying to make a mod... you know, a question!

no not trying to make a mod or anything to do with game that is why it is in the off topic feed

it is just something i have been thinking about for about 2 years that is all

Well if you really want to wrap your head around something and see what you come up with how about the upcoming cosmic event of December 21st 2012? It should prove interesting to see what happens when our planet, our sun, Venus, and other heavenly bodies line up with the center of our galaxy... among other things that will be happening. Another thing that will be happening during this event is our axis will have completed a full rotation, something that happens every 26,000 years. The Mayans, who happened to have far superior astrological calculations than we have today, call this time period we are in now the Long Count and when the cosmic forces align this will usher in the end... the main question is, how do you interpret 'the end' as so many scientists/astronomers/archaeologists have said, they aren't really sure if the Mayans meant the end as we would understand it, or just an end to this 'era' and the rise of a new, more enlightened one. They do leave a few minor clues with regards to statements like, "it will be the end of the war gods, people will unite for a greater cause". They actually had a show on this last night on the discovery channel, IIRC and it was quite interesting as it was the first time I've seen anything on this topic delved into so deeply... fascinating stuff really!
But again, my main reason for bringing this up is what do you guys think might happen if many of the heavenly bodies line up as they say they will as our planet completes it's wobble?

Sorry danielost, I wasn't trying to steal your thread but it seemed like it fit into your OP... a little bit at least.

evil maybe it does but it is still a good question



according to the bible no one knows the when the end will be except god not the angels not the son of man

as far as the event you talk about it will just be another day just like 2000 jan 1 was