Can Moons Have Moons?

After the discovery of supersized exomoon candidates, many have been wondering - can moons have moons? And could *those* also have moons?! Today we dive into this fun little question and learn about the limits of satellites. Written & presented by Prof David Kipping → Support our research program: → Get Stash here! THANK-YOU to our supporters D. Smith, M. Sloan, C. Bottaccini, D. Daughaday, A. Jones, S. Brownlee, N. Kildal, Z. Star, E. West, T. Zajonc, C. Wolfred, L. Skov, G. Benson, A. De Vaal, M. Elliott, B. Daniluk, M. Forbes, S. Vystoropskyi, S. Lee, Z. Danielson, C. Fitzgerald, C. Souter, M. Gillette, T. Jeffcoat, H. Jensen, J. Rockett, N. Fredrickson, D. Holland, E. Hanway, D. Murphree, S. Hannum, T. Donkin, K. Myers, A. Schoen, K. Dabrowski, J. Black, R. Ramezankhani, J. Armstrong, K. Weber, S. Marks, L. Robinson, F. Van Exter, S. Roulier, B. Smith, P. Masterson, R. Sievers, G. Canterbury, J. Kill, J. Cassese, J. Kruger, S. Way, P. Finch, S. Applegate, L. Watson, T. Wheeler, E. Zahnle, N. Gebben, J. Bergman, E. Dessoi, J. Alexander, C. Macdonald, M. Hedlund, P. Kaup, C. Hays, S. Krasner, W. Evans, D. Bansal, J. Curtin, J. Sturm, RAND Corp., I. Attard, M. Donovan, N. Corwin, M. Mangione, K. Howard, L. Deacon, G. Metts, G. Genova, R. Provost, B. Sigurjonsson, G. Fullwood, T. Mitchum, B. Reid & R. Lester. ::References:: ► Kollmeier, J. & Raymond, S. (2019), “Can Moons Have Moons?“, MNRAS, 483, 80: ► Also check out Sean Raymond’s excellent blog article! ::Music:: Music licensed by (SS) [], or via Creative Commons (CC) Attribution License (), or with permission from the artist ► Brad Hill - There Is but One Good (00:00) [] ► Falls - Life in Binary (4:08) ► Chris Zabriskie - Cylinder Four (8:50) ► Joachim Heinrich - Stjarna (12:05) ► Indive - Trace Correction (14:54) ::Film/TV clips used:: ► Sunshine (2007) Fox Searchlight Pictures ► First Man (2017) Universal Pictures ► Another Earth (2011) Fox Searchlight Pictures ► Moonfall (2022) Lionsgate ► Agora (2009) Focus Features International ► Outro clip by Sloan Digital Sky Survey, Berkeley Lab, Miguel Aragon, Mark Subbarao & Alex Szalay ::Chapters:: 00:00 Introduction 02:28 How are moons lost? 04:08 Tides 06:22 Moon Hill Spheres 07:19 Analytic Results 09:03 Iapetus 10:12 Giant exomoons 11:46 Moon moon moons 13:55 Final thoughts 14:54 Outro & credits #MoonMoons #SubMoons #CoolWorlds