The Most Interesting Moons in Our Solar System - Gizmodo

There are just eight planets in our Solar System (sorry Pluto), so the neighborhood can feel pretty empty.

But there are over 200 moons orbiting objects in the solar system, including planets and large asteroids.

Here are some of the most intriguing moons (big and small) that are orbiting around our solar system.

Earth’s moon is sometimes known by its Latin name, Luna, but its proper English and astronomical designation is simply Moon.

The itsy-bitsy Dactyl was only discovered by happenstance; in 1993, NASA’s Galileo spacecraft swung by an asteroid named 243 Ida, and spotted a small moon orbiting the space rock.

A small moon of Jupiter (small meaning it is just slightly larger than Earth’s Moon), Io has hundreds of volcanoes peppering its surface that spew lava dozens of miles into its sky; combined with its thin, sulfurous atmosphere, the moon is pretty hellish.

Pan and Atlas are two endearingly petite moons of Saturn, and both have a flying saucer shape reminiscent of the ringed planet they orbit.

The moons were first imaged by the Voyager program, and were later imaged by the Cassini spacecraft (which ended its career by plunging into Saturn itself).

Charon is a moon of Pluto, and it’s little compared to other solar system moons, but large compared to its parent body, which was once considered the smallest planet in the solar system.

Charon is a relatively recently discovered solar system moon, discovered by a United States Naval Observatory astronomer in 1978.

Titan is Saturn’s largest moon, and the second-largest in the solar system after Jupiter’s Ganymede