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Most planets of the solar system have natural satellites orbiting around them which we call moons.
There are a total of 137 moons
in the solar system. The two planets closest to the sun, Mercury and Venus, have no moons. It is
thought that this is because the sun's gravity is strong enough in these regions to rip them away
from their planet.Both Earth and Pluto have only one moon while Jupiter has 63 moons. The moons in
our solar system range from small asteroids to being larger than the planet Mercury.
There are several ways that a planet can obtain moons. One way is that the moon could have formed
at the same time as the planet it orbits. Some could have formed elsewhere and have been captured
by the gravity of the planet it orbits. A third way is the way that Earth's moon is thought to have
been formed. Current lunar orbit and geology supports that it was once a part of the Earth and formed
from material knocked from the Earth in a collision with a planet-sized object during the early stages
of the Earth.
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