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 16 moons whose names start with the letter T. 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Tarqeq | Saturn | A lunar (moon) deity in Inuit mythology |
| Tarvos | Saturn | A divine figure of a bulle with thre cranes perched on its back |
| Taygete | Jupiter | One of the Pleiades, daughter of the titan Atlas. |
| Telesto | Saturn | Personification of divine blessing and success. One of the Oceanids. |
| Tethys | Saturn | One of the Titans. Mother of the Oceanids. |
| Thalassa | Neptune | Pre-Greek word for “sea” and its representation in mythology |
| Thebe | Jupiter | Name used by a few of Zeus’ daughters. It is also the name of a city in central Greece. |
| Thelxinoe | Jupiter | One of the three original muses (goddesses of literature, science, and arts) |
| Themisto | Jupiter | Daughter of the river god Inachus. |
| Thiazzi | Saturn | A Jötunn (giant). Father of Skadi |
| Thrymr | Saturn | King of the Jǫtnar in Norse mythology |
| Thyone | Jupiter | Also known as Semele. Youngest daughter of Cadmus. |
| Titan | Saturn | Named after the Greek Titans |
| Titania | Uranus | Named after a charcter in Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream |
| Trinculo | Uranus | Named after a charcter in Shakespeare’s play The Tempest |
| Triton | Neptune | Greek god of the sea. Son of Poseidon |
Tarqeq
Tarqeq is an irregular moon of Saturn discovered in 2007 by Scott Sheppard and his team. Named after the lunar deity in Inuit mythology who would chase down wrongdoers, this small moon is approximately 7 kilometers in diameter. It belongs to the Inuit group of irregular satellites and orbits Saturn in a prograde direction, unlike many other irregular moons.
Tarvos
Tarvos is an irregular moon of Saturn discovered in 2000 by the Gladman-Kavelaars team. Named after a Gaulish deity depicted as a divine bull with three cranes perched on its back, this moon is about 15 kilometers in diameter. It belongs to the Gallic group of irregular satellites and follows a highly inclined orbit around Saturn.
Taygete
Taygete is one of Jupiter’s irregular moons, discovered in 2000 by Scott Sheppard and his team. Named after one of the Pleiades sisters in Greek mythology who was pursued by Zeus, this moon is approximately 5 kilometers in diameter. It belongs to the Carme group of irregular satellites and follows a retrograde orbit around Jupiter.
Telesto
Telesto is one of Saturn’s small trojan moons, discovered in 1980 by Bradford Smith using ground-based telescopes. Named after an Oceanid who personified divine blessing in Greek mythology, this moon is about 25 kilometers across. It shares the same orbit as the much larger moon Tethys, residing in one of its Lagrange points, making it a “trojan” moon.
Tethys
Tethys is one of Saturn’s major moons, discovered in 1684 by Giovanni Cassini. Named after the Titan goddess of fresh water and mother of the Oceanids in Greek mythology, Tethys is about 1,062 kilometers in diameter. It is composed almost entirely of water ice, featuring a massive canyon called Ithaca Chasma that runs nearly three-quarters of the way around the moon. Its surface is heavily cratered, with one impact crater, Odysseus, spanning nearly 40% of the moon’s diameter.
Thalassa
Thalassa is one of Neptune’s inner moons, discovered in 1989 from images taken by the Voyager 2 spacecraft. Named after the primordial spirit of the sea in Greek mythology, this small moon is irregularly shaped and measures about 81 kilometers across. It orbits very close to Neptune and is gradually spiraling inward due to tidal forces.
Thebe
Thebe is one of Jupiter’s small inner moons, discovered in 1979 by Stephen Synnott using data from the Voyager 1 spacecraft. Named after a mythological nymph who became one of Zeus’s lovers, this moon is about 98 kilometers in diameter. It orbits within Jupiter’s main ring system and helps maintain the ring by supplying dust particles through impacts.
Thelxinoe
Thelxinoe is an irregular moon of Jupiter discovered in 2002 by Scott Sheppard and his team. Named after one of the original three Muses in Greek mythology, this small moon is only about 2 kilometers in diameter. It belongs to the Ananke group of irregular satellites and follows a retrograde orbit around Jupiter.
Themisto
Themisto is a small moon of Jupiter discovered in 1975 by Charles Kowal, lost, and then rediscovered in 2000. Named after a nymph who was one of Zeus’s lovers and daughter of the river god Inachus, this moon is about 9 kilometers in diameter. It follows a unique orbit between Jupiter’s Galilean and irregular moons, making it the only known member of its orbital group.
Thiazzi
Thiazzi is an irregular moon of Saturn discovered in 2000 by Brett Gladman and colleagues. Named after a giant from Norse mythology who was the father of Skadi, this moon is approximately 6 kilometers across. It belongs to the Norse group of irregular satellites and follows a retrograde orbit around Saturn.
Thrymr
Thrymr is one of Saturn’s irregular moons, discovered in 2000 by Brett Gladman and his team. Named after the king of the frost giants in Norse mythology who once stole Thor’s hammer, this small moon is about 7 kilometers in diameter. It belongs to the Norse group of irregular satellites and orbits Saturn in a retrograde direction.
Thyone
Thyone is an irregular moon of Jupiter discovered in 2001 by Scott Sheppard and his team. Named after Semele (who was renamed Thyone after her deification), mother of Dionysus in Greek mythology, this small moon is approximately 4 kilometers in diameter. It belongs to the Ananke group of irregular satellites and follows a retrograde orbit.
Titan
Titan is Saturn’s largest moon and the second-largest natural satellite in the Solar System, discovered in 1655 by Christiaan Huygens. Named after the Titans of Greek mythology, it is the only moon known to have a dense atmosphere and liquid on its surface. At 5,150 kilometers in diameter, Titan is larger than the planet Mercury. It features lakes of liquid methane, complex organic chemistry, and weather patterns similar to Earth’s, making it a prime target for astrobiological studies.
Titania
Titania is the largest moon of Uranus, discovered in 1787 by William Herschel. Named after the queen of the fairies in Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” it is 1,578 kilometers in diameter. The moon shows evidence of past geological activity, with extensive valleys and fault systems across its surface. Its interior is believed to be composed of roughly equal amounts of rock and ice, and it may contain a liquid water ocean deep beneath its surface.
Trinculo
Trinculo is one of Uranus’s small irregular moons, discovered in 2001 by Matthew Holman and his team. Named after the jester character in Shakespeare’s “The Tempest,” this moon is only about 18 kilometers across. It follows an irregular, highly inclined orbit around Uranus, suggesting it was captured rather than forming alongside the planet.
Triton
Triton is Neptune’s largest moon, discovered in 1846 by William Lassell just weeks after Neptune’s discovery. Named after the son of Poseidon in Greek mythology, Triton is unique among large moons for orbiting in a direction opposite to its planet’s rotation. At 2,700 kilometers in diameter, it is the seventh largest moon in the Solar System. Its surface features active nitrogen geysers and a thin nitrogen atmosphere. Due to its retrograde orbit, Triton is thought to be a captured Kuiper Belt object rather than having formed alongside Neptune.
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.