There are 288 discovered natural satellites – or moons, as they are colloquially known – in the Solar system. Most of these are found in the outer gas giants. However, many of these have not received proper names as they were discovered recently and have yet to be confirmed. Only 164 moons have proper names.
Out of those, there are 6 moons whose names start with the letter B. These are all listed in the following table. Below you will also find some additional details about each, including physical characteristics, the original meaning of their names, etc.
| Name | Planet | Name Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Bebhionn | Saturn | Irish goddess of birth |
| Beli | Saturn | A Jötunn (giant) |
| Belinda | Uranus | Named after a character in Alexander Pope’s works. |
| Bergelmir | Saturn | A giant of Norse mythology. Grandson of Ymir |
| Bestla | Saturn | Mother of Odin |
| Bianca | Uranus | Named after a character in Shakespeare’s play The Taming of the Shrew |
Bebhionn
Discovered in 2004 by Scott S. Sheppard, Bebhionn is an irregular moon of Saturn named after the Irish goddess of birth. With a diameter of about 6 km, it’s part of the Norse group of moons, orbiting Saturn in a retrograde direction. Bebhionn’s orbit suggests it may be a captured asteroid or comet fragment.
Beli
Beli is another irregular moon of Saturn, discovered in 2004 by Scott S. Sheppard and his team. Named after a Jötunn (giant) from Norse mythology, Beli has an estimated diameter of about 6 km. It’s part of the Norse group and orbits Saturn retrograde, taking about 1088 days to complete one orbit.
Belinda
Belinda is one of the inner moons of Uranus, discovered in 1986 by the Voyager 2 team. Named after a character in Alexander Pope’s “The Rape of the Lock,” it has a diameter of about 90 km. Belinda orbits within Uranus’s planetary ring system and is thought to be composed primarily of water ice with rocky material.
Bergelmir
Discovered in 2004 by Scott S. Sheppard, Bergelmir is an irregular moon of Saturn named after a giant in Norse mythology. With a diameter of about 6 km, it’s part of the Norse group. In mythology, Bergelmir was the grandson of Ymir and one of the few giants to survive the great flood of Ymir’s blood.
Bestla
Bestla is an irregular moon of Saturn discovered in 2004 by Scott S. Sheppard and his team. Named after the mother of Odin in Norse mythology, Bestla has an estimated diameter of about 7 km. It’s part of the Norse group and orbits Saturn retrograde, taking about 1088 days to complete one orbit.
Bianca
Bianca is an inner moon of Uranus, discovered in 1986 by the Voyager 2 spacecraft team. Named after a character in Shakespeare’s play “The Taming of the Shrew,” it has a diameter of about 51 km. Bianca orbits Uranus every 0.43 Earth days and is thought to be composed of rock and ice. It’s one of Uranus’s 13 known inner moons.
Click on a letter below for a list of moons that begin with it.
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z
Related:
For more on how moons are named check out this article.