Moons

This very short introduction will tell you all you need to know about moons. Galileo discovered the moons of Jupiter through his telescope in January 1610, which he documented on a page reproduced here. However, it was Simon Marius who gave them definitive Greek names in 1614. The Italian Giovanni Cassini (1625-1712) made some detailed observations of Jupiter's moons, which amazingly led him to hypothesise that light does not travel infinitely fast. There are in fact 190 moons in our solar system but many of this number are outer moons of Jupiter (59) and Saturn (38). Our moon is the fifth largest. After his initial chapter on the discovery and significance of moons, the author moves on to our own moon and its influence, the moons of other planets including Mars and moons of small bodies before concluding with exomoons in other planetary systems. A highly readable and informative book.