Have you ever gazed up at the night sky, looked up at the moon and wondered if it could have a moon of its own?

While you probably haven’t, a curious 4-year-old did back in 2015, and on Tuesday, his astronomer mom and one of her colleague’s published a paper that essentially says: Yes, a moon can have its own moon.

The Carnegie Institution of Washington’s Juna Kollmeier AKA “The Junaverse” told HuffPost that while none of the planets’ moons in our solar system currently have moons (that we know of), “Earth’s moon, one of Jupiter’s moons and two of Saturn’s moons” may all have once had moons.

But the real question is: What do you call a moon’s moon?

While Kollmeier and astronomer Sean Raymond referred to them as “submoons” in their paper, the New Scientist has dubbed them “moonmoons.”

If you ask me, they are "Submoons" (hence the title of our article!!!) But the internet has brought forth a wide variety of names and associated joy and for this, I'm delighted: Moonlet, Moonmoon, Moonito, Moonette, Moonlet, Grandmoon, Metamoon...#letsasklevi — Juna A. Kollmeier (@thejunaverse) October 10, 2018

And what would Juliet (from Shakespeare) say about all this? Probably something like:



"What's in a name? That which we call a Submoon

By any other word would be as sweet!" — Juna A. Kollmeier (@thejunaverse) October 10, 2018

How much moon could a moonmoon moon if a moonmoon could moon moon https://t.co/wuw8OHG8ax — pumpkin king (@lauren__ovee) October 11, 2018

moonmoons are the new boaty mcboatface and they must be protected at all costs https://t.co/UPkrl5wk8T — quoth the RAEven (@PAYOLETTER) October 10, 2018

While the International Astronomical Union is likely to have the final say, Kollmeier said they had also considered “Moonlets” and “Moons-of-Moons.”

“The internet is having a blast with the name which is A) totally unexpected, and B) super fun! People need a little fun,” Kollmeier said.

“I am not casting my vote before consulting with my son Levi. He was the inspiration for the work and if he likes moonmoon or moonito or whatever, I have to back it!”

moonmoon is now my favorite term of endearment, surpassing dumpling and handsome frond — arabelle sicardi (@arabellesicardi) October 10, 2018

Moonmoon can have moonmoonmoons too? — Celine✨🌾 (@Celynxx) October 10, 2018

PSA: If your day needs ridiculous brightness & cheer (& moonmoon isn’t doing it alone), click through for the glory of Moon Moon memes of goofy pups in the replies. pic.twitter.com/AOh1FhaCz7 — Mika McKinnon (@mikamckinnon) October 10, 2018

While the pair’s findings have only scratched the surface, Kollmeier hopes that it gets both little and big kids alike “psyched about submoons.”

“I’m super excited about this – by doing calculations of possible submoon trajectories and comparing known architectures, we may learn a lot more about the solar system which is fantastic,” she said.