Moon thread? Moon thread.

Daphnis as it travels through the rings of Saturn causing waves as it goes

All images are from NASA/JPL unless I say otherwise

Charon, one of Pluto’s moons, has a planet-wide canyon that’s twice as deep as the Grand Canyon in places. It’s half the size of Pluto making it the biggest moon relative to its planet

It’s actually so massive that both it and Pluto orbit around a point slightly beyond Pluto so it’s tempting to think of them as a pair of dwarf planets rather than a moon and a dwarf planet. Even the other moons orbit that point rather than Pluto itself

Sunlight reflecting from the liquid on Titan. The 2nd image (radar) shows hydrobarbon lakes and rivers

Credit for this image of Titan’s surface goes to the European Space Agency, as they performed the only moon landing in the outer solar system

Ganymede, the biggest moon in the solar system, is larger than the planet Mercury. It has an oxygen atmosphere and it’s the only moon known to have its own magnetic field

Pan looks like it’s trying to do an impression of Saturn as it carves a path through the giant rings

Dione is one of several moons we’re pretty sure has a subsurface ocean of water

Europa is covered in ice but multiple lines of evidence suggest there’s a planet-wide subsurface ocean. If it moves like a duck, has a young and smooth surface like a duck, and seems to be coating areas with sea salt like a duck, it might have a subsurface ocean

Io is the most dense moon in the solar system. Covered in hundreds of active volcanoes, it’s also the most geologically active body in the solar system. It’s basically hell, don’t go there

The half black and half white Iapetus will be familiar to fans of 2001 who will be able to point out where the Monolith is

Enceladus certainly looks like an alien world compared to our home but it also has water oceans and hydrothermal vents

It has geysers that fire water out into space, which the falls back as snow. Cassini flew through the plume!

I have nothing to say about Mimas except look at this picture Cassini took

I also love these shots of Rhea, also by Cassini

In the first you can see Epimetheus below Rhea

I love this picture because it’s so crisp and clear you can imagine being there. But where?

It’s our moon!

In 2013, China landed a rover with an HD camera on our closest world

Images by the China National Space Administration, Chinese Academy of Sciences

These are most of my favourite moons. What about you? Any weirdos I missed?