How Many Moons Does Each Planet Have?

The moon when illuminated by the sun casts soft glows and bright ones depending on how much of the sun's rays bounce off its surface. The Earth is the only planet that has a visibly detailed moon that can be clearly seen when one witnesses it in the night sky.

The moon's surface is quite noticeable with its marble-esque surface gleaming in all its simple beauty, where it depends on the sun to shine forth. The moon has an important role to play on planet Earth, where it controls the ocean's tides and governs how it shifts and falls.

The moon is actually a satellite that sits in the sky as it orbits the Earth, held up by a gravitational force that balances not just the moon but other cosmic bodies in the universe.

To better study the moon, it would be of great use to own a powerful telescope that could catch the intricacies of its surface on a full moon night. The other planets in the solar system also have moons of their own and this find is quite a fascinating one. Imagine if the Earth had more moons than one?

Like if another happened to somehow just pop up in our night sky? That would be something. Over the years moons have come and gone, with many of them changing in number as time has lapsed. The only two planets that do not have any moons as of today are Venus and Mercury.

Like I said earlier, the number of moons per planet keeps changing with only a few of them still holding the same count for several years now. The Hubble telescope and its trusty high-resolution photographs, capture the moons that come and go, concluding that the number of moons can vary.

It has been speculated that although the planets may change their number of moons, the Earth and the other planets that seem to have none, will always stay the same in that respect. Let's find out how many moons each planet has dotted around its bulbous self.

☾ Earth
Moon

☾ Mars
Phobos and Deimos

☾ Jupiter
Known to have an ever-changing number of moons. Jupiter has 79 moons with known orbits and in which 72 have confirmed orbits. Some of the names of these moons are Ananke, Autonoe, Aitne, Adrastea, Amalthea, Callirrhoe, Chaldene, Callisto, Euporie, Euanthe, Erinome, Hermippe, Kale and so on.

☾ Saturn
Saturn like Jupiter, has had quite a number of moons. It has 82 moons with known orbits over the years . Some of the known names are Albiorix, Atlas, Calypso, Dione, Epimetheus, Erriapo, Janus, Kivuiq, Mundilfari and so on.

☾ Uranus
At the time, Uranus had about 27 moons placed around itself, where it has now come down to 15. Some of those names were Ariel, Belinda, Cordelia, Desdemona, Miranda, Oberon, Prospero, Stephano and so on.

☾ Neptune
There was a time when Neptune had 14 moons, where it is now down to about 2. Some of the known moon names were Despina, Galatea, Larissa, Nereid, Proteus and so on.

☾ Pluto
Pluto has 5 moons and only one largest moon thus far, called Charon.

The moon has an important part to play for our planet, seeing that it governs the way it controls the gravitational pull and pressure of the tides. Ever notice how high tides are always seen during the nighttime?

That is because the moon's presence is strongest during this time, especially when it is full faced and quite prominent, where even the way the Earth rotates and how the sun exerts force is a factor.