M oons have been a source of wonder and awe to philosophers, scientists and the common man alike from time immemorial. Generally, we use the word 'Moon' to address our natural satellite. In astronomy, however 'moon' is considered a generic term for any celestial object moving around the parent planet. Does that mean that asteroids, meteors etc can also be classified as moons? No. Asteroids are smaller bodies in comparison to moons. They thus lack the mass and gravity to pull their surfaces to a spherical shape. Moreover, asteroids originate from the asteroid belt while moons do not. Though this gives credible information that moons cannot be asteroids, the vice-versa is true. The moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos are asteroids! They originated from the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter but still are considered as moons. Figure 1: Phobos and Deimos, the moons of Mars are asteroids!
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