• Zekas@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    4
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    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
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      edit-2
      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.