Earth’s moon is visible most nights and is one of the few astronomical objects we can comfortably see without a telescope. But our solar system is full of more interesting moons and many even have captivating Greek myths associated with them.
From fiery Io to icy Europa, the Manfred Olson Planetarium has a whole program dedicated to moons and myths.
“We wanted to talk about moons because it gives us an opportunity to talk about what we know about these interesting moons — which we’re about to explore as well — but also it gives me a chance to [talk about] myths, which I associate with summer,” says planetarium director and Lake Effect astronomy contributor Jean Creighton.
Moons like Titan — the largest and most important moon of Saturn — may also hold the key to further discoveries in our solar system.
“In 2004, [the Huygens] probe landed on the surface of Titan, and that is the farthest thing that humans have ever landed anywhere!” she explains.
One of Jupiter’s moons, Europa, might hold the potential for discovering extraterrestrial life in its icy surface, according to Creighton.
“We have looked at pictures — the ice has cracks, and we see water vapor coming out of these worlds. There could be potentially life in them right now. There are two spacecraft going to Europa; they’re going to arrive around 2030. And although we don’t expect that we’ll be able to determine whether it’s life or not in them, we certainly will be able to get better data as to whether there’s a liquid ocean under that crust,” she explains. “How exciting — and even in our own solar system, there could be good conditions for life right now. I think it’s so interesting that our solar system — our own little solar system, one star, eight planets — has such a wide variety of different worlds.”
UW-Milwaukee's Manfred Olson Planetarium’s “Moons & Myths” program occurs every Friday starting July 11th through August 1.
