Talk:List of moons by diameter

Explanation?

I think it'd be helpful to the article to explain at the beginning that the bolded moons are the rounder ones and which planets/groups the different colors mean. --Patteroast 19:34, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

Ganymede discovery in 364 BC?

Where does the 364 BC date for the discovery of Ganymede come from? I didn't see it in the main article on Ganymede.

Raddick 13:11, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

It used to be in Ganymede but was recently deleted; however see also Galilean moons and Gan De. I personally believe that the claim there made is erroneous, and that what Gan De saw was a close conjunction of Jupiter and Mars; however, the claim (not the fact) is verifiable.RandomCritic 14:56, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

On second thought, the date really shouldn't be there, as the column lists dates of discovery, not of observation. Even if Gan De saw Ganymede, he didn't recognize it as being a satellite of Jupiter, so it was not a discovery; just as, although Galileo observed Neptune in 1612-1613, he mistook it for a star and Neptune was not discovered until 1846. Likewise, Uranus was observed - but not correctly identified - 18 times in the 17th and 18th centuries before its discovery in 1781. Galileo was the first to correctly classify Ganymede as a satellite of Jupiter, so he should get sole credit for its discovery, and the discovery date should be his date. RandomCritic 18:02, 28 August 2007 (UTC)

Adding Masses to the Table?

What would people think about adding a mass column to the table? The rank of moons by mass generally follows the rank of moons by diameters, but not always. If people think this is a good idea, I have compiled the information for moons over 350 km in diameter.Caldust55 (talk) 04:25, 8 December 2007 (UTC)Caldust55

It would be better as a separate table, List of moons by mass.

RandomCritic (talk) 14:15, 8 December 2007 (UTC)

To me, it is a difference between purity of presentation and usefulness to the reader. If we agree to add masses to the table in this article, it would also have to be done without compromising the readability of the table. Not having any experience creating/editing tables, I'm not sure how this would come out. Looking at the existing table again, there may not be room to add an additional column; possibly, this could be resolved by using the Diameter column for both diameter and mass. The heading would read Diameter/Mass (km)/(kg). The column entry for Ganymede would read 5262.4/1.4189 x 10×10²³. If this would be too confusing, I'd just leave it as it is.

Caldust55 (talk) 23:03, 8 December 2007 (UTC)Caldust55

List of Sizes, Name Column

Should it be "Moon" or "Luna" RJRocket53 (talk) 00:41, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

The official astronomical name for the Earth's satellite varies by language. That means that it's only "Luna" in Latin, Spanish, Italian, Ligurian, Sicilian, Romanian, Russian, Bulgarian, and Slovene. In English it is "Moon". RandomCritic (talk) 01:51, 26 February 2008 (UTC)