• Question: How many moons are there in the Solar System and which is the biggest?

    Asked by k3ennab to Peter on 13 Nov 2016. This question was also asked by amy broadbent.
    • Photo: Peter Boorman

      Peter Boorman answered on 13 Nov 2016:

      Hi k3ennab!

      Great question! There are 181 known ‘naturally occuring’ moons in our solar system. Rather interestingly, 8 of these moons are orbiting ‘dwarf planets’ – i.e. not one of the main 8 ‘full-size’ planets.
      The largest moon of these is Ganymede, which orbits Jupiter. Bizarrely, if Ganymede were orbiting the Sun, instead of Jupiter, it would be big enough to be called one of the ‘full-size’ planets itself!!

      Peter

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