| rdfs:comment | - A natural satellite is a satellite for a star, or planet. An example of a natural satellite is the moon, Luna or Titan, or even Io. Many stars actually have natural satellites. In that, every planet in our solar system is a natural satellite to the sun, and everything else is a natural satellite to the super black hole at the center of the Milky Way.
- A natural satellite is a rocky, metallic or icy body orbiting something of larger size and mass.
- The large gas giants of Sol have extensive systems of moons, including half a dozen comparable in size to Earth's moon: the four Galilean moons, Saturn's Titan, and Neptune's Triton. Saturn has an additional six mid-sized moons massive enough to have achieved hydrostatic equilibrium, and Uranus has five. Jupiter has more than sixty moons, of which only four are colonized. Those moons are called Jovian Moons. Of the inner planets, Mercury and Venus have no moons at all; Earth has one large moon, Luna, and Mars has two tiny moons, Phobos and Deimos.
- As of September 2008, 335 bodies are formally classified as moons. They include 167 orbiting six of the eight planets, 6 orbiting three of the five dwarf planets, 104 asteroid moons, and 58 satellites of Trans-Neptunian objects, some of which will likely turn out to be dwarf planets. Some 150 additional small bodies were observed within Saturn's ring system, but they were not tracked long enough to establish orbits. Planets around other stars are likely to have natural satellites as well, although none have been observed.
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| abstract | - A natural satellite is a satellite for a star, or planet. An example of a natural satellite is the moon, Luna or Titan, or even Io. Many stars actually have natural satellites. In that, every planet in our solar system is a natural satellite to the sun, and everything else is a natural satellite to the super black hole at the center of the Milky Way.
- As of September 2008, 335 bodies are formally classified as moons. They include 167 orbiting six of the eight planets, 6 orbiting three of the five dwarf planets, 104 asteroid moons, and 58 satellites of Trans-Neptunian objects, some of which will likely turn out to be dwarf planets. Some 150 additional small bodies were observed within Saturn's ring system, but they were not tracked long enough to establish orbits. Planets around other stars are likely to have natural satellites as well, although none have been observed. The large gas giants have extensive systems of moons, including half a dozen comparable in size to Earth's moon: the four Galilean moons, Saturn's Titan, and Neptune's Triton. Saturn has an additional six mid-sized moons massive enough to have achieved hydrostatic equilibrium, and Uranus has five. Of the inner planets, Mercury and Venus have no moons at all; Earth has one large moon, known as the Moon; and Mars has two tiny moons, Phobos and Deimos. Among the dwarf planets, Ceres has no moons (though many objects in the asteroid belt do). Pluto has three known satellites, the rather large Charon and the smaller Nix and Hydra. Haumea has two moons, and Eris has one. The Pluto-Charon system is unusual in that the center of mass lies in open space between the two, a characteristic of a double planet system.
- A natural satellite is a rocky, metallic or icy body orbiting something of larger size and mass.
- The large gas giants of Sol have extensive systems of moons, including half a dozen comparable in size to Earth's moon: the four Galilean moons, Saturn's Titan, and Neptune's Triton. Saturn has an additional six mid-sized moons massive enough to have achieved hydrostatic equilibrium, and Uranus has five. Jupiter has more than sixty moons, of which only four are colonized. Those moons are called Jovian Moons. Of the inner planets, Mercury and Venus have no moons at all; Earth has one large moon, Luna, and Mars has two tiny moons, Phobos and Deimos.
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