NASA Space Place Grades 3 and 4馃獝 Space

How Many Moons Does Each Planet Have?

NASA Space Place 路 2026-07-31 路 2 min read
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Watch this video about other moons in our solar system! Voiceover provided by NASA scientist Dr. Moogega Stricker. Click here to download this video (1920x1080, 56 MB, video/mp4).

A lot of moons or no moons at all?

We on Earth have just one moon, but some planets have dozens of them. Others don鈥檛 have any. Which planets have moons, and which don鈥檛?

Let鈥檚 go in order from the Sun.

Mercury and Venus

Up first are Mercury and Venus. Neither of them has a moon.

Because Mercury is so close to the Sun and its gravity, it wouldn鈥檛 be able to hold on to its own moon. Any moon would most likely crash into Mercury or maybe go into orbit around the Sun and eventually get pulled into it.

Why Venus doesn鈥檛 have a moon is a mystery for scientists to solve.

Mercury and Venus do not have any moons. Cartoon of Mercury telling the sun it's the sun's fault. Because of you, I don't have any moons. Sorry about that.

Earth (That's us!)

Up next is Earth, and of course we have one moon.

Earth and the moon are glad they're buds. I'm so glad we're buds.

Mars

Mars has two moons. Their names are Phobos and Deimos. Don鈥檛 you wish our moon had a cool name like that?

Cartoon of Mars and its two moons, Phobos and Deimos.

Jupiter

Next are the giant outer planets. They have lots of moons. Jupiter, for instance, has 115 known moons (as of April 2026)!

The most well-known of Jupiter's moons are Io (pronounced eye-oh), Europa, and Callisto. Jupiter also has the biggest moon in our solar system, Ganymede.

These moons are so big you can see them with just a pair of binoculars.

Jupiter is the biggest planet and has the biggest moon, Ganymede. Cartoon illustration.

Saturn

As of June 2026, Saturn has 293 moons. And that鈥檚 not counting Saturn鈥檚 beautiful rings!

Saturn鈥檚 moons have great names like Mimas, Enceladus, and Tethys. One of these moons, named Titan, even has its own atmosphere, which is very unusual for a moon.

Cartoon of Saturn with a 'most moons' ribbon.

Uranus and Neptune

Uranus has 29 known moons. Some of them are made partly of ice.

Lastly, Neptune has 16 known moons. One of Neptune's moons, Triton, is as big as dwarf planet Pluto.

Neptune asks Uranus if theyhave enough moons. We've got a good number of moons, right?

To learn more about the moons in our solar system, visit the NASA Solar System Exploration moons page.