Has always held a fascination for man…an old friend far far away. Â So it’s exceptionally fitting that in 2018 a celestial body would be named after a meme.
Scientists are always questioning things, this time wondering if moons have little moons that orbit them. The question was prompted by the son of Luna Kellner. She’s a scientist who works for the Observatories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, who recruited the help of an astronomer in order to write a paper on the matter.
In the study, both scientists argued that it is possible for moons to have little moons. In more formal words, they explained that a few conditions have to be met, such as the primary moon has to be big enough and far away enough from the planet it orbits in order for the smaller moon to survive.
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Even though we don’t know if the Earth’s moon has a moon of its own, the paper shows sufficient evidence that suggests that this could be a possibility. Further research on this matter could also inform us on how planets and their moons are formed.
New Scientist reports that one of the names suggested for these small moons is ‘moon-moon,’ which, if you’re not fluent in meme-speak is a very famous and dumb looking internet wolf.
Moon Moon got famous on the internet in 2013, and can still be seen every once in a while on Tumblr and Instagram.
Other equally interesting name suggestions for little moons include submoon, minimoon, binary moons, meta-moon, and moon2.
Now, do these moon-moons have an even smaller moon that’s orbiting them, like the space version of a Russian nesting doll? It’s all very cute and confusing.
