• Question: how do uranus have 27 moons?

    Asked by Chloe c to Heather, Helen, Hugh, Jane, Julian on 14 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Julian Onions

      Julian Onions answered on 14 Nov 2014:

      We don’t know quite how it got all its moons. Its a long way away so difficult to study in detail. We suspect that some of them were formed near Uranus, whilst others may be objects that were floating around nearby and got caught by Uranus gravity and its kept them ever since.
      Uranus is quite a large planet, much bigger than the Earth, so it has a lot of gravity to hold onto things.

    • Photo: Helen Johnson

      Helen Johnson answered on 16 Nov 2014:

      As Julian says, moons are thought to form from bits and pieces left over from planet formation – either clumping together under gravity near planets, or forming elsewhere and then being captured!

Comments