HOW MANY MOONS ARE THERE IN OUR SOLAR SYSTEM?

Before our science topic of this Wednesday, first the latest in the politics of the USA.

About Trump reciprocal taxes and Liberation Day, let's start by being realistic.  The U.S. has a sizable trade deficit every year mostly because our exported products are too expensive.  Start with a simple matter of what it costs to produce anything.  Unions are part of the problem, too, but workers here get paid from $30 to $40/hour in many industries.  That is what is earned by employees in China...but per day.  And that's high, for here is what is the monthly wage in these Asian countries per month:  China $193-332, Vietnam $107-$156, India $74-$223 and Cambodia $122.

In the Rose Garden at 4:10PM EDT today, you can yourself watch President Donald Trump's Liberation Day remarks:

• Tariff speech shared some facts, exaggerated a lot, downright lied here and there, and continues the process of screwing up the best current economy of the world, ours.
• There will be a 10% baseline tariff for all trading partners from April 5 and more reciprocal tariffs on April 9 for the worst offenders.

• 
  Among his comments:

The president used aggressive rhetoric to describe a global trade system that the United States helped to build after World War II, saying “our country has been looted, pillaged, raped, plundered” by other nations.

“Taxpayers have been ripped off for more than 50 years,” Trump said in remarks at the White House. “But it is not going to happen anymore.”

• There will be worldwide reprisals.
• Prices will go up.
• Unemployment will increase.

• Apple stock fell 6.7% in after-hours trading.  Note that this Trump talk began after the market closed.

• 
  Dow Jones futures plummeted 1,100, or 2.7%, while the S&P sank 3.9%.
• The stock market will continue to fall, probably leading to a recession, maybe as soon as this Fall.

Clearly, there were two embarrassment yesterday for the MAGA world.  

• The Trump/Musk/MAGA/Republican gang got rebuked, for their Florida election margins dropped, while Wisconsin snubbed Musk by easily selecting Susan Crawford (the Democratic-backed candidate) over Brad Schimmel (the Musk guy), even though all polls showed a dead heat up to election day.  
• 
  Looks like Trump will now need to go to Plan B, which is to find a way to cancel the 2026 mid-term election.  Watch out Democrats, for the more serious the protests, the more likely Trump can order military rule and become a dictator.  

• 
  Or Trump can simply ignore any Supreme Court verdict against him.  They have no enforcement power.  Trump has the Department of Defense, National Guard and the Attorney General with him.

Repercussions?

• 
  Trump hates losers.  Leaked out was info that Elon Musk would return to his enterprises, soon.  However, no doubt Musk will continue to get major federal projects to insure that he continues to provide sufficient funds to Republican candidates, hopefully in ways that don't rile up the opposition.
• A small band of Congressmen from the House this morning staged a rebellion, and Speaker Mike Johnson cancelled all legislation for the rest of the week.  Those two new Florida members won't make a difference for this kind of blowback.  Republican members are getting restive.

About the science topic for today, what exactly is a moon?

A moon is an object that orbits a planet or something else that is not a star. Besides planets, moons can circle dwarf planets, large asteroids, and other bodies. Objects that orbit other objects are also called satellites, so moons are sometimes called natural satellites.

Are all moons spherical?  No.  The larger ones generally are because of gravitational effects, but smaller ones like Phobos and Deimos around Mars are not.

How many moons are there in our solar system?

• In the year 2000, astronomers only counted 146 moons.  Jupiter had 66 and Saturn 62.  
• As of this week, we are now up to 923.   (That graphic to the right was created on 17July2024 when there were only 761.)
•  The number regularly goes up.  And the odds are high that this number will change this year.

• 
  According to Edward Ashton, there are probably 10,000, just in our solar system.  
• For example, there should be more than 100 extra dwarf planets in our outer solar system, and all probably have at least one moon.
• Jupiter has 95, including the largest, Ganymede, which is larger than Mercury.

• 
  Saturn has 274, the most, and Titan is almost as large as Ganymede.
• Mars is the most likely place extraterrestrial life might be found, at least according to David Bowie.  Other options are mostly moons, with Jupiter's Europa #2, Saturn's Titan #3, Saturn's Enceladus #4, Venus #5 and Jupiter's Ganymede #6.

• 
  Here is a trick question.  After our Moon, around which planet was a moon first found.
• Jupiter in 1610, Io, Europa and Ganymede, by Galileo Galilei.
• Saturn in 1656, Titan, by Christiaan Huygens.

• 
  Saturn in 1673, Iapetus, by Giovanni Cassini.
• Many other moons of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune....until Mars in 1877, Phobos and Deimos, by American Assaph Hall III.  Why so late?  They are smallish and too close to Mars.

• 
  One more, this about our Moon.
• Sure, we've heard about the recent Blood Moon, so the color changes.  
• Any Blue Moon is not blue in color, but just means that there is a second full moon that month.  Actually, I've never seen this, but pollution can provide a blue tinge to the Moon.

• 
  Sunset, for example, provides orange.
• Usually at sunset, with atmospheric effects, there is even a purple moon.

• 
  Our Moon has shown a dozen different colors, some  hard to explain as to why.  Watch this video.

I many times end my posting with some musical finish, cartoons (usually featuring Donald Trump, Snoopy and such) and so forth.  Today, my latest karaoke song, Always on My Mind.  

• I thought Willy Nelson was first to record this song.  Nope.
• This ballad was written by Wayne Carson, Johnny Christopher and Mark James in 1971.  

• 
  The backstory is that Carson on the phone apologized to his wife for staying away in Memphis on a project for too long, and indicated that he had been thinking about her all the time.

• 
  Hmmm...good idea for a song.
• James had already written the 1969 Suspicious Minds for Elvis Presley, so for a while it was thought AoMM had something to do with Elvis' marital troubles.

• 
  Gwen McCrae first released You Were Always on My Mind in March 1972, Elvis Presley later in the month, and Brenda Lee three months later.  Elvis had separated from wife Priscilla only a few weeks earlier, his Always on My Mind was on the B-side of Separate Ways.

• 
  In 1979 John Wesley Ryles released a country version and retitled it, You Are Always on My Mind.
• My mind somehow forgot all those recordings.  In 1982, Willie Nelson recorded Always on My Mind, hitting #1 on Billboard's Hot Country Singles chart in May, and #5 on the Billboard Hot 100.  Won him three Grammys in 1983.  Christopher played guitar on Nelson's song.

• 
  While my karaoke version is Willie's, my favorite Always on My Mind came in 1987 by the Pet Shop Boys, commemorating the tenth anniversary of Elvis' death.  Came at the height of my disco years. Reached #4 on the Billboard Hot 100.  Here is a 2016 re-mixed video, 15 minutes long.
• How much do writers get for a song?  Well, just for the Willie Nelson version, the three writers shared more than a million dollars.
• Good story of this song here. written 37 years ago.

Maybe I didn’t love you

Quite as often as I could have

And maybe I didn’t treat you

Quite as good as I should have

--From Always on My Mind

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