Natural satellites

Natural satellites

When we talk about the whole set of solar system we have to refer not only to the planets but to the natural satellites. A natural satellite is a non-artificial celestial body that orbits another. Satellites are normally smaller in size than the body it is continually circling. This movement is due to the attraction exerted by the force of gravity of the larger body on the smaller one. It is the reason why they begin to orbit continuously. The same is true of the orbit of the earth with respect to the sun.

In this article we are going to tell you all the characteristics and curiosities of natural satellites.

Natural satellites in the solar system

natural satellites the moon

When we talk about a natural satellite too it is usually referred to by the common name of moons. Since we call our satellite the moon, other satellites of other planets are referred to by the same name. For example, it is often said "the moons of Jupiter«. Every time we use the term moon, it refers to the celestial body that moves around another body in the solar system, although it can do so around the dwarf planets as well as the inner planets, Outer planets and even other smaller bodies such as asteroids.

The solar system is made up of 8 planets, 5 Tiny planets, comets, asteroids and at least approximately 146 natural satellites of planets. The best known of all is ours known as the moon. It is the only satellite on planet Earth. If we start to compare the number of satellites between the inner or outer planets, we see a big difference. The inner planets have very few or no satellites. On the other hand, the rest of the planets known as outer planets have several satellites due to their large size.

Since all these natural satellites were discovered little by little, it was given different names. Most of these names come from Greek and Roman mythologies. For example, one of Jupiter's moons is known as Callisto.

Key features

We are going to analyze what are the characteristics that these celestial bodies have. First of all is that it must be a solid celestial body. There are no natural satellites that are made up of gases like gas giants. All natural satellites are made up of solid rocks. The most normal thing is that they do not have their own atmosphere. Being so small, these bodies do not harbor a proper atmosphere. The fact of having an atmosphere would cause various changes in the dynamics of the solar system.

We know they exist about 146 natural satellites in total in the solar system. The question scientists often ask themselves is how do they stay in their orbits and don't zoom out or get too close to the planets around them. This is where we refer to the aforementioned. This is due to gravitational pull. And it is that, as the primitive planets began to grow and develop, they acquired a gravitational field that is capable of keeping other bodies close to each other. Gravity does not make the celestial body move closer to the other, but rather causes it to orbit around it.

This is the same as our planet around the sun. A celestial body moves around another larger body while doing so at a constant speed. The formation of a natural satellite is due to different processes that take place in the solar system. Some of these were formed from clouds of gas and dust that were found around the planets during the first years of their formation. The fact that they were close to the planet caused gravity itself to bind the particles together to form a satellite.

They are not all the same size. We find some that are larger than the moon and others much smaller. The largest moon measures 5.262 kilometers in diameter and is called Ganymede which belongs to Jupiter. As you might expect, the largest planet in the solar system was also supposed to host the largest satellite. If we analyze the orbits we see that they are regular or irregular. Not all are fixed. As for morphology, the same thing happens. There are some bodies that are spherical, while others have a fairly irregular shape. This is due to the process of its formation. It is also due to the speed of it. Those bodies that formed quickly acquired a more irregular shape than those that formed more slowly.

The same goes for the orbit and the time period. For example, the moon takes around 27 days to go around the earth. In its counterpart, of Ganymede finishes turning in 7.16 days, despite the fact that the planet Jupiter is much larger than Earth.

Types of natural satellites

Jupiter satellites

According to the orbits that each one has, there are several types of satellites:

  • Regular natural satellites: They are those bodies that revolve around a larger body in the same sense that it revolves around the sun. That is, the orbits have the same sense even though one is much larger than the other. As an example, the moon rotates from east to west and your planet does the same. Therefore, it is a regular satellite since it is in direct orbit around the largest body.
  • Irregular natural satellites: here we see that the orbits are very far from their planets. The explanation for this may be that their training was not carried out near them. If not that these satellites could be "captured" by the gravitational pull of the planet in particular. There may also be an origin that explains the remoteness of these planets. It is that they could once be comets that entered close to the orbit of a giant planet. These irregular satellites have very elliptical and inclined orbits.

I hope that with this information you can learn more about natural satellites and their main characteristics.


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