From Planets to Moons: Understanding the Solar System and Its Satellites

The solar system consists of eight planets orbiting the sun, as well as other celestial bodies such as satellites, comets, asteroids, asteroids, dust and gas. The sun is the center of the solar system, and all the planets revolve around the sun. The sun is the ultimate source of heat and light energy for the entire solar system.

Solar System

The solar system consists of eight planets orbiting the sun and other celestial bodies such as satellites, comets, asteroids, asteroids, and dust and gas. The sun is considered to be the center of the solar system and all the planets revolve around it. The sun is the ultimate source of heat and light energy for the entire solar system. The entire solar system is bound together by the sun’s gravity. The solar system was formed 4.6 billion years ago by the gravitational collapse of a huge interstellar molecular cloud.

The eight planets in the solar system are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune in order of their distance from the Sun. Of these eight planets, the first four are known as the inner planets or terrestrial planets, and the last four are known as the outer planets or giant planets. The last two planets, Uranus and Neptune, are mainly composed of substances with higher melting points than hydrogen and helium, called ices, such as water, ammonia, and methane. However, of all the planets in the solar system, only the Earth has been found to have conditions suitable for the survival of life. Previously, there were nine planets in the solar system, including Pluto, however, the International Astronomical Union removed Pluto from the list of planets and labeled it a dwarf planet because of its small size compared to the other existing planets in the solar system. These planets and other celestial bodies all revolve around the Sun. However, there are other objects revolving around these planets, which are called satellites.

satellite

Satellites are basically celestial bodies that orbit around other more massive bodies, for example, the Moon is the only natural satellite of the Earth. The inner planets, namely Mercury and Venus, do not have any satellites, while Mars has two natural satellites, namely, Phoibos and Deimos. Giant planets such as Saturn and Uranus have extensive natural satellite systems. Europa, Ganymede and Callisto are the four major natural satellites of Jupiter. Jupiter has the most satellites/moons, i.e., 51 satellites, followed by Saturn, which has 36 satellites. On the other hand, there are also artificial satellites, which are man-made and launched from the Earth. These satellites can perform certain specific functions. The first artificial satellite was Sputanik-1, which was launched by the Soviet Union in 1957. These artificial satellites have various functions such as weather monitoring, space surveillance, global positioning system, etc. These artificial satellites are called geosynchronous satellites, geostationary satellites, etc., based on their rotational orbits. India’s first satellite was Aryabhatta, which was launched in 1975. Today, many satellites are launched to perform specific purposes such as national defense, remote sensing, weather forecasting, espionage, space research, television broadcasting, etc.

Natural satellite

satellite

  1. Natural satellites are formed by nature.
  2. It does not require any energy to rotate.
  3. The moon is a natural satellite.
  1. Satellites are man-made.
  2. Energy is required to install and orbit any planet.
  3. A telecommunications satellite is an example of an artificial satellite.

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