Poll of the Day > Is it possible to hide a moon behind the moon?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I mean, we know there isn't one for our moon - we scienced that

I just mean hypothetically could there be a lunasynchronous orbiting moon behind the moon in a way that we'd never know it was there until actually sending stuff into space

---

Yes, im sure it happens on the gas giants often
If my the moons are different distances and orbit at different speeds it can happen

---

I'm sure it's possible, given how vast and bizarre the universe is, but it'd be exceptionally rare to see that happen because the planet's gravity would generally interfere with a secondary satellite establishing such a stable orbit. Odds are it wouldn't actually be impossible to detect without launching into space, though, since its orbit would influence that of the primary satellite in detectable ways.

---

adjl posted...

but it'd be exceptionally rare to see that happen because the planet's gravity would generally interfere with a secondary satellite establishing such a stable orbit.

Ya, it'd only be possible from that end if the second moon happened to be resting in an Earth-Sun lagrange point

---

I was gonna do the math to show that a second moon far enough away from the first moon, which would therefore need to be moving signifantly faster to always stay behind it (also would need to be at least slightly smaller), could in fact not be affected by the first moons gravitational pull, or blocking the gravitational pull of the planet.

This allows a second moon to split off from the planet at a later date and enter that orbit eventually (at a much further distance out) making it totally possible to have two moons orbit a planet in such a way that the second moon would never be seen from the planet. The chance of course is extremely small, but I don't feel like doing the math, and will instead just simply say.

Yes, it could happen.

One theory is that every possibility that can happen, has, in one universe or another, so therefore not only has it happened, it's happened in a solar system exactly like ours except earth has a second moon that you can never see.

---

in skies of arcadia there's a hidden moon that could be behind one of the other 6 moons. but that might be different because their world is a torus

---

Lagrange points are not stable. An object can't just sit there, it has to orbit the L-point. And the L1, L2 and L3 points are unstable, an object in orbit around those points will eventually depart unless it is capable of station keeping. L4 and L5 are stable, if the mass of the primary object (planet) is sufficiently higher than that of the secondary body (moon). But an object at L4 or L5 will still orbit the point.



---

We would feel like such idiots if there was a just a moon behind the other moon and this entire time weve had two moons and had no idea

---

captpackrat posted...

Lagrange points are not stable. An object can't just sit there, it has to orbit the L-point. And the L1, L2 and L3 points are unstable, an object in orbit around those points will eventually depart unless it is capable of station keeping. L4 and L5 are stable, if the mass of the primary object (planet) is sufficiently higher than that of the secondary body (moon). But an object at L4 or L5 will still orbit the point.

Can a Lagrange point ever 'be' stable as a result of... something?

---