Late last year, astronomers decided that moons which orbit other moons should get their own special name. The label “moon-moon” was offered — and promptly ridiculed because of how silly it sounds — but the name appears to have stuck, for better or worse. With that problem solved, some have turned their attention to another type of world that doesn’t have a concrete name.
Moons that escape the gravity of their host planet and go solo can be called many things, and their label often depends on how large they are. For particularly massive moons that break free, researchers have a new name: Ploonets.
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Moons that escape their planets are now called ‘ploonets’ originally appeared on BGR.com on Thu, 11 Jul 2019 at 18:04:56 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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