Moons in Our Solar System

As of May 2019 there are about 350 moons in our Solar System.  175 of them orbit one of the 8 planets in our Solar System, there are 9 moons that orbit 5 dwarf planets. And the rest of them?  They are like asteroids that orbit around the Sun. 

Scientists are finding that moons in our Solar System are super interesting and different! 

Only Mercury and Venus are moonless...Earth has one, Mars has 2 teeny tiny moons, Neptune has 13, Uranus has 27 and Jupiter has 63 confirmed moons, though astronomers are saying there are many more.  Finally Saturn has about 60 and counting as well.  Out of those 60, 42 have been spotted since 1997.

Moons are called "planetary satellites".  The most interesting moon in the Solar System is Titan, one of Saturn's moons.  Titan has a thick atmosphere, weather, lakes, valleys, deserts and rivers.  The main gas in the atmosphere is nitrogen, but no oxygen.  Without oxygen life (as we know it) can't exist.  The surface of Titan is hidden behind an orang-ish haze...still, scientists think of Titan as a "frozen earth". 

The probe Huygens took these pictures as it traveled closer to the surface of Titan.

Methane lakes...

This is what Titan looked like before the Hubble telescope was set into orbit around the Earth.  This picture was taken in 1994:

This picture was taken by the Cassini aircraft:

The infrared eyes on Cassini took these images in 2018:

Watch this video of the view from the Huygens probe:

Definitely there are future missions to Titan.  Scientists love to compare the moons of our Solar System to enrich the story of our origins in this vast space around us.  Want to read more?
https://www.universetoday.com/141218/titans-thick-clouds-obscure-our-view-but-cassini-took-these-images-in-infrared-showing-the-moons-surface-features/