Natural satellites are relatively small cosmic bodies that revolve around larger "host" planets. In part, a whole science is devoted to them - planetology.

In the 70s, astronomers assumed that Mercury had several celestial bodies, because they caught ultraviolet radiation around. Later it turned out that the light belonged to a distant star.

Modern equipment makes it possible to study the planet closest to the Sun in more detail. Today, all planetary scientists unanimously repeat that it has no satellites.

Moons of the planet Venus

Venus is called similar to the Earth, since they have the same compositions. But if we talk about natural space objects, then the planet named after the goddess of love is close to Mercury. These two planets solar system unique in that they are completely alone.

Astrologers believe that Venus could have previously observed such, but to date, not a single one has been found.

How many natural satellites does the earth have?

Our native earth many satellites, but only one natural one, which every person knows from infancy, is the Moon.

The size of the Moon exceeds a quarter of the diameter of the Earth and is 3475 km. It is the only celestial body with such large dimensions relative to the "owner".

Surprisingly, its mass is also small - 7.35 × 10²² kg, which indicates a low density. Multiple craters on the surface are visible from Earth even without any special devices.

What are the moons of Mars?

Mars is a rather small planet, which is sometimes called red because of its scarlet hue. It is given by iron oxide, which is part of it. Today, Mars boasts two natural celestial objects.

Both moons, Deimos and Phobos, were discovered by Asaph Hall in 1877. They are the smallest and darkest objects in our comic system.

Deimos is translated as the ancient Greek god, sowing panic and horror. Based on observations, it is gradually moving away from Mars. Phobos, named after the god who brings fear and chaos, is the only satellite that is so close to the "owner" (at a distance of 6000 km).

The surfaces of Phobos and Deimos are abundantly covered with craters, dust and various loose rocks.

Moons of Jupiter

To date, the giant Jupiter has 67 satellites - more than any other planet. The largest of them are considered an achievement Galileo Galilei, since they were discovered by him in 1610.

Among the celestial bodies orbiting Jupiter, it is worth noting:

• Adrastea, with a diameter of 250 × 147 × 129 km and a mass of ~3.7 × 1016 kg;
• Metis - dimensions 60 × 40 × 35 km, weight ~ 2 1015 kg;
• Thebe, which has a scale of 116×99×85 and a mass of ~4.4×1017 kg;
• Amaltheus - 250 × 148 × 127 km, 2 1018 kg;
• Io with a weight of 9 1022 kg at 3660×3639×3630 km;
• Ganymede, which, with a mass of 1.5 1023 kg, had a diameter of 5263 km;
• Europe, occupying 3120 km and weighing 5 1022 kg;
• Callisto, with a diameter of 4820 km having a mass of 1 1023 kg.

The first satellites were discovered in 1610, some from the 70s to the 90s, then in 2000, 2002, 2003. The last of them were discovered in 2012.

Saturn and its moons

Found 62 satellites, of which 53 have names. Most of them are composed of ice and rocks, differing in their reflective feature.

The largest space objects of Saturn:

How many moons does Uranus have?

On the this moment Uranus has 27 natural celestial bodies. They are named after characters. famous works by Alexander Pope and William Shakespeare.

Names and list by quantity with description:

Moons of Neptune

The planet, whose name is consonant with the name of the great god of the seas, was discovered in 1846. She was the first to be found with the help of mathematical calculations, and not thanks to observations. Gradually, new satellites were discovered in her, until 14 were counted.

List

Neptune's moons are named after nymphs and various sea deities from Greek mythology.

The beautiful Nereid was discovered in 1949 by Gerard Kuiper. Proteus is a non-spherical cosmic body and is studied in detail by planetary scientists.

Giant Triton is the iciest object in the solar system with a temperature of -240°C, and also the only satellite that rotates around itself in the opposite direction to the rotation of the "master".

Almost all satellites of Neptune have craters on the surface, volcanoes - both fiery and ice. They spew mixtures of methane, dust, liquid nitrogen and other substances from their depths. Therefore, a person will not be able to be on them without special protection.

What are the "satellites of the planets" and how many of them are there in the solar system?

Satellites are cosmic bodies that are smaller in size than the "host" planets and orbit the latter. The question of the origin of satellites is still open and is one of the key questions in modern planetary science.

To date, 179 natural space objects are known, which are distributed as follows:

• Venus and Mercury - 0;
• Earth - 1;
• Mars - 2;
• Pluto - 5;
• Neptune - 14;
• Uranus - 27;
• Saturn - 63;
• Jupiter - 67.

Technologies are improving every year, finding more celestial bodies. It is possible that new satellites will be discovered soon. We can only wait, constantly checking the news.

The largest satellite in the solar system

The largest moon in our solar system is Ganymede, a moon of the giant Jupiter. Its diameter, according to scientists, is 5263 km. The next largest is Titan with a size of 5150 km - the "moon" of Saturn. Closes the top three Callisto - Ganymede's "neighbor", with whom they share one "owner". Its scale is 4800 km.

Why do planets need satellites?

Planetologists at all times asked themselves the question "Why do we need satellites?" or “What effect do they have on the planets?” Based on observations and calculations, some conclusions can be drawn.

Natural satellites play an important role for the hosts. They create a certain climate on the planet. No less important is the fact that they serve as protection against asteroids, comets, and other dangerous celestial bodies.

Despite such a significant impact, satellites are still not mandatory for the planet. Even without their presence, life can be formed and maintained on it. This conclusion was made by American scientist Jack Lissauer from the NASA Science Space Center.

Continuation. . .

On March 13, 1781, English astronomer William Herschel discovered the seventh planet in the solar system - Uranus. And on March 13, 1930, American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh discovered the ninth planet in the solar system - Pluto. By the beginning of the 21st century, it was believed that the solar system included nine planets. However, in 2006, the International Astronomical Union decided to strip Pluto of this status.

There are already 60 known natural satellites of Saturn, most of which have been discovered using spacecraft. Most satellites are made up of rocks and ice. The largest satellite, Titan, discovered in 1655 by Christian Huygens, is larger than the planet Mercury. The diameter of Titan is about 5200 km. Titan orbits Saturn every 16 days. Titan is the only moon to have a very dense atmosphere, 1.5 times the size of Earth's, and consisting mostly of 90% nitrogen, with a moderate amount of methane.

The International Astronomical Union officially recognized Pluto as a planet in May 1930. At that moment, it was assumed that its mass was comparable to the mass of the Earth, but later it was found that the mass of Pluto is almost 500 times less than the Earth's, even less than the mass of the Moon. The mass of Pluto is 1.2 times 1022 kg (0.22 Earth masses). The average distance of Pluto from the Sun is 39.44 AU. (5.9 by 10 to the 12th degree km), the radius is about 1.65 thousand km. The period of revolution around the Sun is 248.6 years, the period of rotation around its axis is 6.4 days. The composition of Pluto supposedly includes rock and ice; the planet has a thin atmosphere composed of nitrogen, methane and carbon monoxide. Pluto has three moons: Charon, Hydra and Nyx.

In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, many objects were discovered in the outer solar system. It has become clear that Pluto is only one of the largest Kuiper belt objects known to date. Moreover, at least one of the objects of the belt - Eris - is a larger body than Pluto and 27% heavier than it. In this regard, the idea arose to no longer consider Pluto as a planet. On August 24, 2006, at the XXVI General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union (IAU), it was decided to henceforth call Pluto not a "planet", but a "dwarf planet".

At the conference, a new definition of the planet was developed, according to which planets are considered to be bodies revolving around a star (and not being a star themselves), having a hydrostatically balanced shape and "clearing" the area in the region of their orbit from other, smaller, objects. Dwarf planets will be considered objects that revolve around a star, have a hydrostatically equilibrium shape, but have not "cleared" the nearby space and are not satellites. Planets and dwarf planets are two different classes of solar system objects. All other objects revolving around the Sun and not being satellites will be called small bodies of the solar system.

Thus, since 2006, there have been eight planets in the solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune. Five dwarf planets are officially recognized by the International Astronomical Union: Ceres, Pluto, Haumea, Makemake, Eris.

On June 11, 2008, the IAU announced the introduction of the concept of "plutoid". It was decided to call plutoids celestial bodies that revolve around the Sun in an orbit whose radius is greater than the radius of Neptune's orbit, whose mass is sufficient for gravitational forces to give them an almost spherical shape, and which do not clear the space around their orbit (that is, many small objects revolve around them ).

Since it is still difficult to determine the shape and thus the relation to the class of dwarf planets for such distant objects as plutoids, scientists recommended temporarily assigning to plutoids all objects whose absolute asteroid magnitude (brilliance from a distance of one astronomical unit) is brighter than +1. If later it turns out that the object assigned to the plutoids is not a dwarf planet, it will be deprived of this status, although the assigned name will be left. The dwarf planets Pluto and Eris were classified as plutoids. In July 2008, Makemake was included in this category. On September 17, 2008, Haumea was added to the list.

The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources

On October 4, 1957, the world's first artificial Earth satellite was launched into low Earth orbit. Thus began the space age in human history. Since then, artificial satellites have been regularly helping to study the cosmic bodies of our galaxy.

Artificial Earth Satellites (AES)

In 1957, the USSR was the first to launch a satellite into Earth orbit. The USA did it second, a year later. Later, many countries launched their satellites into Earth's orbit - however, satellites purchased in the same USSR, the USA or China were often used for this. Now satellites are launched even by radio amateurs. However, many satellites have important tasks: astronomical satellites explore the galaxy and space objects, biosatellites help to conduct scientific experiments on living organisms in space, meteorological satellites make it possible to predict the weather and observe the Earth’s climate, and the tasks of navigation and communication satellites are clear from their name. Satellites can be in orbit from several hours to several years: for example, manned spacecraft can become a short-term artificial satellite, and a space station can become a long-term one. spaceship in Earth's orbit. In total, more than 5800 satellites have been launched since 1957, 3100 of them are still in space, but only about one thousand of these three thousand are working.

Artificial satellites of the moon (ASL)

At one time, ISLs helped a lot in the study of the Moon: when entering its orbit, the satellites photographed the lunar surface in high resolution and sent the images to Earth. In addition, by changing the trajectory of the satellites, it was possible to draw conclusions about the gravitational field of the Moon, the features of its shape and internal structure. Here Soviet Union again ahead of everyone: in 1966, the Soviet automatic station Luna-10 was the first to enter the lunar orbit. And over the next three years, 5 more Soviet satellites of the Luna series and 5 American satellites of the Lunar Orbiter series were launched.

Artificial satellites of the Sun

It is curious that until the 1970s, artificial satellites appeared near the Sun ... by mistake. The first such satellite was Luna-1, which missed the Moon and entered the orbit of the Sun. And this despite the fact that it is not so easy to switch to a heliocentric orbit: the device must dial the second cosmic speed without exceeding the third. And approaching the planets, the device can slow down and become a satellite of the planet, or accelerate and completely leave the solar system. But now NASA satellites orbiting the Sun near the Earth's orbit began to perform detailed measurements of the parameters of the solar wind. The Japanese satellite observed the Sun in the X-ray range for about ten years - until 2001. Russia launched solar satellite in 2009: Coronas-Photon will explore the most dynamic solar processes and monitor solar activity around the clock to predict geomagnetic disturbances.

Artificial satellites of Mars (IMS)

First artificial satellites Mars became ... three ISMs at once. Two space probes were released by the USSR ("Mars-2" and "Mars-3") and one more by the USA ("Mariner-9"). But the point is not that the launch took place "in a race" and there was such an overlay: each of these satellites had its own task. All three ISMs were launched into significantly different elliptical orbits and performed different Scientific research, complementing each other. Mariner 9 produced a sketch of the surface of Mars for mapping, and Soviet satellites studied the characteristics of the planet: the solar wind flow around Mars, the ionosphere and atmosphere, relief, temperature distribution, the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere, and other data. In addition, Mars-3 was the first in the world to make a soft landing on the surface of Mars.

Artificial satellites of Venus (WIS)

The first WIS were once again Soviet spacecraft. Venera 9 and Venera 10 went into orbit in 1975. Reaching the planet. They were divided into satellites and landers. Thanks to WIS radar, scientists were able to obtain radio images with a high degree of detail, and the devices that gently landed on the surface of Venus took the world's first photographs of the surface of another planet ... The third satellite was the American Pioneer-Venus-1 - it was launched three years later.

The solar system consists of eight planets and more than 63 of their satellites, which are being discovered more and more often, as well as several dozen comets and a large number of asteroids. All cosmic bodies move along their clear directed trajectories around the Sun, which is 1000 times heavier than all the bodies in the solar system combined.

How many planets revolve around the sun

How the planets of the solar system originated: approximately 5-6 billion years ago, one of the gas and dust clouds of our big galaxy (milky way), shaped like a disk, began to shrink towards the center, gradually forming the current Sun. Further, according to one of the theories, under the influence of powerful forces of attraction, a large number of dust and gas particles rotating around the Sun began to stick together into balls - forming future planets. According to another theory, the gas and dust cloud immediately broke up into separate clusters of particles, which, compressed and compacted, formed the current planets. Now 8 planets revolve around the sun constantly.

The center of the solar system is the Sun, the star around which the planets revolve in orbits. They do not emit heat and do not glow, but only reflect the light of the sun. There are currently 8 officially recognized planets in the solar system. Briefly, in order of distance from the sun, we list them all. And now some definitions.

Planet satellites. The solar system also includes the Moon and the natural satellites of other planets, which all of them have, except for Mercury and Venus. More than 60 satellites are known. Most satellites of the outer planets were discovered when they received photographs taken by robotic spacecraft. Jupiter's smallest moon, Leda, is only 10 km across.

The Sun is a star without which life on Earth could not exist. It gives us energy and warmth. According to the classification of stars, the Sun is a yellow dwarf. The age is about 5 billion years. It has a diameter at the equator equal to 1,392,000 km, 109 times larger than the earth. The rotation period at the equator is 25.4 days and 34 days at the poles. The mass of the Sun is 2x10 to the 27th power of tons, approximately 332950 times the mass of the Earth. The temperature inside the core is about 15 million degrees Celsius. The surface temperature is about 5500 degrees Celsius.

By chemical composition The sun is made up of 75% hydrogen, and the other 25% of the elements has the most helium. Now, in order, let's figure out how many planets revolve around the sun, in the solar system and the characteristics of the planets.

Mercury is the 1st planet in the solar system

Mercury. The four inner planets (nearest to the Sun) - Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars - have a solid surface. They are smaller than four giant planets. Mercury moves faster than other planets, being burned by the sun's rays during the day and freezing at night.

Characteristics of the planet Mercury:

Period of revolution around the Sun: 87.97 days.

Diameter at the equator: 4878 km.

Rotation period (turn around the axis): 58 days.

Surface temperature: 350 during the day and -170 at night.

Atmosphere: very rarefied, helium.

How many satellites: 0.

The main satellites of the planet: 0.

Venus is the 2nd planet in the solar system

Venus is more similar to Earth in size and brightness. Observation of it is difficult because of the clouds enveloping it. The surface is a hot, rocky desert.

Characteristics of the planet Venus:

Period of revolution around the Sun: 224.7 days.

Diameter at the equator: 12104 km.

Rotation period (turn around the axis): 243 days.

Surface temperature: 480 degrees (average).

Atmosphere: dense, mostly carbon dioxide.

How many satellites: 0.

The main satellites of the planet: 0.

Earth is the 3rd planet in the solar system

Apparently, the Earth was formed from a gas and dust cloud, like other planets in the solar system. Particles of gas and dust, colliding, gradually "raised" the planet. The temperature on the surface reached 5000 degrees Celsius. Then the Earth cooled down and became covered with a hard stone crust. But the temperature in the bowels is still quite high - 4500 degrees. Rocks in the bowels are molten and pour out to the surface during volcanic eruptions. Only on earth there is water. That's why life exists here. It is located relatively close to the Sun to receive the necessary heat and light, but far enough away so as not to burn out.

Characteristics of the planet Earth:

Period of revolution around the Sun: 365.3 days.

Diameter at the equator: 12756 km.

The period of rotation of the planet (rotation around the axis): 23 hours 56 minutes.

Surface temperature: 22 degrees (average).

Atmosphere: mostly nitrogen and oxygen.

Number of satellites: 1.

The main satellites of the planet: the Moon.

Mars is the 4th planet in the solar system

Due to the similarity with the Earth, it was believed that life exists here. But descended on the surface of Mars spacecraft found no signs of life. This is the fourth planet in order.

Characteristics of the planet Mars:

Period of revolution around the Sun: 687 days.

Diameter of the planet at the equator: 6794 km.

Rotation period (rotation around the axis): 24 hours 37 minutes.

Surface temperature: -23 degrees (average).

Atmosphere of the planet: rarefied, mostly carbon dioxide.

How many satellites: 2.

Main moons in order: Phobos, Deimos.

Jupiter is the 5th planet in the solar system

Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are made up of hydrogen and other gases. Jupiter is more than 10 times larger than Earth in diameter, 300 times in mass and 1300 times in volume. It is more than twice as massive as all the planets in the solar system combined. How much planet Jupiter does it take to become a star? It is necessary to increase its mass by 75 times!

Characteristics of the planet Jupiter:

The period of revolution around the Sun: 11 years 314 days.

Diameter of the planet at the equator: 143884 km.

Rotation period (turn around the axis): 9 hours 55 minutes.

Planet surface temperature: -150 degrees (average).

Number of satellites: 16 (+ rings).

The main satellites of the planets in order: Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto.

Saturn is the 6th planet in the solar system

This is the number 2 largest of the planets in the solar system. Saturn draws attention to itself due to the ring system formed from ice, rocks and dust that orbit the planet. There are three main rings with an outer diameter of 270,000 km, but their thickness is about 30 meters.

Characteristics of the planet Saturn:

The period of revolution around the Sun: 29 years 168 days.

Diameter of the planet at the equator: 120536 km.

Rotation period (turn around the axis): 10 hours 14 minutes.

Surface temperature: -180 degrees (average).

Atmosphere: mostly hydrogen and helium.

Number of satellites: 18 (+ rings).

Main satellites: Titan.

Uranus is the 7th planet in the solar system

Unique planet in the solar system. Its peculiarity is that it revolves around the Sun not like everyone else, but "lying on its side." Uranus also has rings, although they are harder to see. In 1986, Voyager 2 flew 64,000 km and had six hours of photography, which it successfully completed.

Characteristics of the planet Uranus:

Orbital period: 84 years 4 days.

Diameter at the equator: 51118 km.

The period of rotation of the planet (rotation around the axis): 17 hours 14 minutes.

Surface temperature: -214 degrees (average).

Atmosphere: mostly hydrogen and helium.

How many satellites: 15 (+ rings).

Main satellites: Titania, Oberon.

Neptune is the 8th planet in the solar system

At the moment, Neptune is considered the last planet in the solar system. Its discovery took place by the method of mathematical calculations, and then already seen through a telescope. In 1989, Voyager 2 flew by. He took amazing photographs of the blue surface of Neptune and its largest moon, Triton.

Characteristics of the planet Neptune:

The period of revolution around the Sun: 164 years 292 days.

Diameter at the equator: 50538 km.

Rotation period (turn around the axis): 16 hours 7 minutes.

Surface temperature: -220 degrees (average).

Atmosphere: mostly hydrogen and helium.

Number of satellites: 8.

Main moons: Triton.

How many planets in the solar system: 8 or 9?

Previously, for many years, astronomers recognized the presence of 9 planets, that is, Pluto was also considered a planet, like the others already known to everyone. But in the 21st century, scientists were able to prove that it is not a planet at all, which means that there are 8 planets in the solar system.

Now, if you are asked how many planets are in the solar system, answer boldly - 8 planets in our system. It has been officially recognized since 2006. When lining up the planets of the solar system in order from the sun, use the finished picture. What do you think, maybe Pluto should not have been removed from the list of planets and these are scientific prejudices?

How many planets in the solar system: video, watch for free

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Satellites of the planets of the solar system: exact number for inner and outer planets external system, the largest and smallest satellite, description, photo, research.

For many centuries, people could observe the only available satellite - the Moon. But in 1610, Galileo makes a breakthrough and finds 4 satellites of Jupiter, proving that other celestial bodies have moons. But how many of them are there in our system?

How many satellites are in the solar system

It is difficult to answer how many satellites the planets of the solar system have, because there are confirmed candidates. Now they can be counted up to 173, but if you include dwarf planets, then 182. You can study each satellite in more detail for solar planets in order on the board.

The solar system is also home to 200 very tiny objects located in the Kuiper belt, and representatives of TNOs (trans-Neptunian objects). Approximately 150 orbit Saturn (62 with officially confirmed orbits). If we combine everything, we get the result of 545 moons.

internal system

The inner system is the zone with the first four planets from the Sun. But here we only consider our planet Earth and Mars, because Venus and Mercury rotate alone.

The Earth's Moon extends in a radius of 1737 km, and in terms of mass - 7.3477 x 10 22 kg. Density index - 3.3464 g / cm 3. It is believed that it was formed after the collision of the Earth with a large celestial body.

The Martian lunar family consists of Phobos and Deimos. Both are in a tidal block and resemble asteroids. It is believed that the planet pulled them from the asteroid belt. Phobos is located closer (9377 km) and extends for 27 km.

Deimos spans only 12.6 km and is 23,460 km distant, which means it takes 30.35 hours to orbit. In total, 3 satellites live in the internal system.

External system

Beyond the asteroid belt, the outer solar system begins and the lunar quantity increases sharply. And it all starts with the gas giant and the largest planet - Jupiter. He has the largest number - 79, which can grow to 200 if applicants are confirmed.

The four largest were named after the discoverer Galileo Galilei - Galilean: Io (the most volcanic), Europa (with an underground ocean), Ganymede (the largest in the system) and Callisto (an underground ocean and an ancient surface).

There is also the Almateya group with four satellites less than 200 km in diameter. Irregular satellites are very tiny and distant over long distances. They are also divided into families according to composition and orbital path.

Saturn may have 150 moons, but 62 are considered official (53 have names). 34 of them have a diameter of less than 10, and 14 - from 10 to 50 km. But there are also large-scale specimens stretching for 5000 km. All of them got their names in honor of the titans.

The interiors are composed of water ice and have a rocky core, icy mantle, and crust. The outer ones go beyond the E-ring. Titan is considered the largest with a diameter of 5150 km and a mass of 1350 x 10 20 kg. It contains 96% of the mass of the entire planetary orbit.

There are 27 moons revolving around Uranus. Among the largest are Miranda, Ariel (the brightest), Umbriel (the darkest), Oberon and Titania.

All of these moons are believed to have originated in the accretion disk of the planet. Each has an equal volume of rock and ice. Only Miranda is almost completely icy.

Neptune has 14 moons named after sea nymphs. The right ones are close to the planet, while the wrong ones formed from the remnants of early collisions and move far in retrograde orbits.

The largest is Triton with a diameter of 2700 km. It is distant at 354,759 km from the planet and has enough mass to achieve hydrostatic balance.

Dwarf planets and other objects

A detailed study of the system showed that the moons revolve not only around the planets. There are also dwarf, TNO and other bodies. Mostly seen near Pluto, Eris, Haumea and Makemake.

Pluto has 5 moons, among which Charon is the largest and closest.

There are also Nikta and Hydra found in 2005, Kerberus in 2011 and Styx in 2012. Among them all, only Nikta and Hydra have an elongated shape and could not become spherical. Some believe that Pluto and Charon should be taken as a binary system. They are located in the tidal block, and the satellite may have cryogeysers.

Hiiaka and Nakama, found in 2005, revolve around Haumea. The first extends for 310 km and may be part of a dwarf planet. The second makes an orbital passage in 18 days.

Eris has Dysnomnia, seen in 2005.

In 2016, S/2015 (136472) was found near Makemake, stretching for 175 km, and its distance is 21,000 km.

The largest and smallest satellites of the solar system

The king of all moons in the system is Ganymede with a diameter of 5262.4 km. And the smallest are S / 2003 J9 and S / 2003 J12, whose size is only 1 km.

Now you know how many satellites are in the solar system. Do not forget that we are talking only about those satellites that we managed to detect.