Re: Moons
Four moons, Io, Ganymede, titan, and tritan have atmopsheres in our own solar system, in addition to this the moon of pluto is so large that many astronomers consider it a seperate orbiting planet, being slightly over half as large as its mate.
Statistically this is pretty good proof that moons with atmpospheres and binary planetary systems not only exist but are fairly common, after all the solar system itself only has nine planets.
Of course I have to admit that the four moons with atmopheres are around the gas giants, as are most moons in our system.
Breaking down our solar system we have
4 rock planets
4 gas giants
1 ice planet
an astroid belt
The smaller rock planets have a smaller number moons, Earth having one and Mars having two. The ice planet has one moon almost it's own size, and the gas giants (which are as numerous as the rock planets) have countless moons. The average gas giant having ten to twenty moons.
It's not surprising that the few moons with atmospheres, and many more with other interesting features, orbit the gas giants rather then the few moons found around the rock planets, or the lone ice planet (pluto)
[This message has been edited by Windborne (edited 01 March 2001).]
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