"Astronomers Wonder: Can Moons Have Moons?" Topic

"Inquisitive kids ask some questions that parents just can't answer. Astronomer Juna Kollmeier's son gave her a real stumper one night back in 2014:

"Can moons have moons?"

So she went hunting for an answer.

As far as scientists can tell, none of the Solar System's planets have submoons, moons orbiting their moons. Kollmeier from the Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington and astronomer Sean Raymond from the University of Bordeaux teamed up to find that the answer is, well, complicated. But in the wake of an enormous exomoon possibly spotted around another star, the question is as prescient as ever—and might reveal important information about the history of our own Solar System…."
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Amicalement
Armand

I'm no astrophysicist, but I'll guess no….for our Moon at least. The Moon is only about a quarter of a million miles away from us (on average). Any rock flying around the Moon would likely be captured by the Earth's gravitational field. I'll guess that the Earth stripped away any of the Moon's moons long ago.

Now here are some of Jupiter's moons:

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You'll see that Io is not that much farther from Jupiter than the Moon is from us. Now with Jupiter's gravitation being about 2.5X that of Earth, what's the chance Io could have a moon?

Thanks!.

Amicalement
Armand

If someone's fat momma can have coke cans and hamburgers orbiting around them. I'm sure moons can too.