Moons may bow to planets in terms of size, but in character they often outshine their stolid parents. The named moons of the solar system outnumber planets by more than 20 to 1, and they display a remarkable diversity. There are fully fledged worlds such as Titan, as complex as any planet. There are possible havens for life, such as the ice-crusted water world Europa. New mysteries surround even the smallest satellites, most recently the apparent flying saucers orbiting Saturn.
This year it will be four centuries since Galileo discovered Jupiter’s four large satellites, at a stroke quintupling the number of moons then known to humanity.
Join Stephen Battersby for a tour of some of the most frigid, violent and downright strange worlds we have discovered since then.
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The icy inferno: Io
The walnut: Iapetus
Flying saucers: Pan and Atlas
Living snowballs: Europa, Enceladus and Triton
The boomerang: Nereid
Second Earth: Titan
The original and best: The moon
Out of this solar system: Exomoons