I'm writing a story set in a world with 3 moons and I have a couple of questions about how that would work. I understand that the tidal patterns would be significantly different than Earths and I'm writing that in as part of the story (wild oceans, unpredictable shores/ports).
My question is what would be a logical setup for 3 moons? What I mean is, would one moon be the size of ours (which I understand is unique relative to moons on other planets) the second 1/5th, the third 1/10th ect? What would be a logical size differences between them to be functional (by functional, I mean functional to a "normal" sort of life on the planet)? I'm asking because I'd like to describe how they look at night in certain parts of my story.
Also, how much time would pass between when the 3 moons established an orbit and to when one crashed into another? Millions of years? Billions? I'm curious as to this because I'd like to know if there is enough time since they all 3 arrived to have developed life and if there is enough time left over till the crash and cause mass extinction on the habitable planet.