Planetary Companion Objects and their Types

Jakarta – The solar system is not only filled with planets. Apart from planets, there are also other celestial bodies, one of them planetary companion celestial body namely satellite.

Satellites are objects orbiting planets with certain periods of revolution and rotation. Satellites circulate around the planet and together around the sun. When a satellite orbits the sun, it does not produce its own light. Satellites appear to glow because they reflect sunlight falling on the surface.

Generally, the direction of rotation and revolution of the satellite is the same as the direction of rotation and revolution of the planet, from west to east, except for the satellite of the planet Neptune. Almost all planets in the solar system have satellites, although there are also planets that do not have satellites, namely Mercury and Venus.

There are two types of satellites, namely natural satellites and artificial satellites. Natural satellites are celestial bodies that move around a planet and are held back by a greater attraction. This type of satellite is often known as planetary companion figure object. Meanwhile, artificial satellites are objects that are made by humans and circulate around other objects such as the Palapa satellite.

Why do humans make artificial satellites? Its purpose is to obtain information on weather conditions, relay radio and television broadcasts, as navigation and map making, and for scientific investigations.

There are quite a lot of natural satellites. As the earth has 1 satellite, namely the moon, Mars has 2 satellites namely Phobos and Deimos, then Neptune has 8 satellites namely Naiad, Thalassa, Despina, Galatea, Larissa, Proteus, Triton, and Nereid.

Then, Jupiter has 16 satellites named Metis, Adrastea, Amalthea, Thebe, Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, Leda, Himalia. Then Uranus has 17 satellites consisting of Cordelia, Ophelia, Bianca, Cressida, Desdemona, Juliet, Portia, Rosalind, Belinda, Puck, Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, Oberon, U1, and U2.

Finally, Saturn is the planet with the most number of satellites with 18. The names of the satellites are Pan, Atlas, Prometheus, Pandora, Epimetheus, Janus, Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys, Telesto, Calypso, Dione, Helene, Rhea, Titan, Hyperion, Iapetus , and Phoebe.

Artificial satellites also consist of various types. So far, there are astronomical satellites, communication satellites, earth observation satellites, navigation satellites, spy satellites, solar power satellites, space satellites and weather satellites. So detikers already know planetary companion celestial body that?

(pal/pal)

– .