Satellites and planets solar system
Natural satellites planets play a colossal role in the life of these space objects. Moreover, even we humans are capable of feeling the influence of our planet’s only natural satellite – the Moon.
The natural satellites of the planets of the solar system have aroused keen interest among astronomers since ancient times. To this day, scientists are studying them. What are these space objects?
Natural satellites of planets are cosmic bodies of natural origin that orbit around planets. The most interesting for us are the natural satellites of the planets of the solar system, since they are in close proximity to us.
There are only two planets in the solar system that do not have natural satellites. These are Venus and Mercury. Although it is assumed that Mercury previously had natural satellites, however this planet in the process of its evolution it lost them. As for the rest of the planets in the solar system, each of them has at least one natural satellite. The most famous of them is the Moon, which is our planet’s faithful cosmic companion. Mars has, Jupiter -, Saturn -, Uranus -, Neptune -. Among these satellites we can find both very unremarkable objects, consisting mainly of stone, and very interesting specimens that deserve special attention, and which we will discuss below.
Classification of satellites
Scientists divide planetary satellites into two types: satellites of artificial origin and natural ones. Satellites of artificial origin or, as they are also called, artificial satellites are spacecraft, created by people, which allow you to observe the planet around which they orbit, as well as other astronomical objects from space. Typically, artificial satellites are used to monitor the weather, radio broadcasts, changes in the topography of the planet's surface, and also for military purposes.
The ISS is the largest artificial satellite of the Earth
It should be noted that it is not only the Earth that has satellites of artificial origin, as many people believe. More than a dozen artificial satellites created by mankind revolve around the two closest planets to us - Venus and Mars. They allow you to monitor climatic conditions, changes in terrain, as well as receive other relevant information regarding our space neighbors.
Ganymede is the largest moon in the solar system
The second category of satellites - natural satellites of planets - is of great interest to us in this article. Natural satellites differ from artificial ones in that they were created not by man, but by nature itself. It is believed that most of the satellites of the solar system are asteroids that were captured by the gravitational forces of the planets of this system. Subsequently, the asteroids took on a spherical shape and, as a result, began to revolve around the planet that captured them as a constant companion. There is also a theory that says that the natural satellites of planets are fragments of these planets themselves, which for one reason or another broke away from the planet itself during the process of its formation. By the way, according to this theory, this is how the Earth’s natural satellite, the Moon, came into being. This theory is confirmed chemical analysis composition of the Moon. He showed that the chemical composition of the satellite is practically no different from chemical composition our planet, where the same chemical compounds, as on the Moon.
Interesting facts about the most interesting satellites
One of the most interesting natural satellites of the planets of the solar system is the natural satellite. Charon, compared to Pluto, is so huge that many astronomers call these two space object none other than a double dwarf planet. The planet Pluto is only twice the size of its natural satellite.
The natural satellite is of keen interest to astronomers. Most of the natural satellites of the solar system's planets are composed primarily of ice, rock, or both, resulting in them lacking an atmosphere. However, Titan has this, and quite dense one, as well as lakes of liquid hydrocarbons.
Another natural satellite that gives scientists hope for discovering extraterrestrial life forms is Jupiter’s satellite. It is believed that under the thick layer of ice that covers the satellite there is an ocean, inside of which there are thermal springs - exactly the same as on Earth. Since some deep-sea life forms on Earth exist thanks to these sources, it is believed that similar life forms may exist on Titan.
The planet Jupiter has another interesting natural satellite -. Io is the only satellite planet of the solar system, on which astrophysicists first discovered active volcanoes. It is for this reason that it is of particular interest to space researchers.
Natural satellite research
Research on the natural satellites of the planets of the Solar System has interested the minds of astronomers since ancient times. Since the invention of the first telescope, people have been actively studying these celestial objects. The breakthrough in the development of civilization made it possible not only to discover a colossal number of satellites of various planets of the solar system, but also to set man on the main, closest to us, satellite of the Earth - the Moon. July 21, 1969 American astronaut Neil Armstrong, together with the crew of the Apollo 11 spacecraft, first set foot on the surface of the Moon, which caused rejoicing in the hearts of humanity at that time and is still considered one of the most important and significant events in space exploration.
In addition to the Moon, scientists are actively studying other natural satellites of the planets of the solar system. To do this, astronomers use not only visual and radar observation methods, but also use modern spacecraft, as well as artificial satellites. For example, the “” spacecraft for the first time transmitted to Earth images of several of Jupiter’s largest satellites:,. In particular, it was thanks to these images that scientists were able to record the presence of volcanoes on the moon Io, and the ocean on Europa.
Today, the global community of space researchers continues to be actively engaged in the study of the natural satellites of the planets of the solar system. In addition to various government programs There are also private projects aimed at studying these space objects. In particular, the world-famous American company Google is currently developing a tourist lunar rover, on which many people could take a walk on the Moon.
The earth has two natural satellites
Asteroid with a horseshoe orbit
When someone up there was distributing satellites to the planets of the solar system, the Earth was deprived. She has only one natural friend - Luna. Even Mars has two satellites, and Mars is much smaller than our old lady. The planet Neptune has fourteen of them, Uranus has even more - 27, Saturn grabbed 62, and Jupiter went crazy - 67. But for many years there has been talk about the second satellite of the Earth called Cruithne. It has an outlandish orbit, resembling a horseshoe, and it takes 789 years for the second satellite of Gaia to pass it completely. Today, the younger companion is located from our planet at the same distance as Mars.
Cruithney - companion
By the way, Cruitney is just a baby. Its diameter is no more than five kilometers.
This is her problem, because due to her size she will soon cease to belong to the Earth.
Cruithney - unknown companion Soon, of course, according to time.
Almost eight thousand years later, Cruithne will approach dangerously close to Venus, and she will capture her by the force of her gravity.
And Luna will again remain our only beloved daughter.
Well, what do you want to call Venus after that? To me too - the goddess of love. The plundering bastard!
Cruithney is an asteroid
But some serious scientists are not sad about this, because they do not consider Cruitney to be the second satellite, but, on the contrary, call the little one a bad word - asteroid 3753.
Cruithney is an asteroid In addition, they claim that the Earth has a dime a dozen similar satellites.
It turns out that the Earth also behaves like a hunter and periodically captures the same asteroids.
Many of them revolve around our planet for some time (sometimes up to a year), and then return to solar orbit.
> > > How many satellites does the Earth have?
Earth and its satellites: number of objects near the third planet of the solar system. Learn more about the Moon and hypothetical natural satellites of the Earth with photos.
Let's look at the night sky and count the number of earth's satellites. How many satellites does the Earth have you see? Come on, you didn’t even try, because you know that next to us there is only the Moon. But this is strange, because Jupiter can boast a family of 67 members. Why are we worse?
Does the Earth only have one satellite?
It turns out that there is only one satellite in Earth's orbit? Well, officially it is. More precisely, it is this moment we have a single satellite. But millions or billions of years ago, there is a chance that there were other neighbors nearby. This is proven by the strange landscape on back side The moon, which could have been hit by another satellite.
Companions are not immortal. For example, Mars has two, but this will not always be the case. Phobos is gradually approaching and one day it will simply crash into the planet. This should happen in 10 million years.
Perhaps in the future we will add to the earthly list. For example, Neptune's largest moon Triton rotates in the wrong direction and does not correspond to the others. It is believed that the planet pulled it towards itself with gravity from the Kuiper belt.
You may not know, but our planet already caught asteroid 2006 RH120 in its net in 2006-2007, until it broke out again. Or we have satellites that we simply cannot see due to their position, distance from Earth and small size. Millimeter-sized asteroids may be located in Earth's orbit.
Are there any other satellites on Earth?
How many satellites orbit the Earth? Not far from us live several notable celestial bodies. Asteroid 3753 Cruithney is in orbital resonance with the third planet from the Sun. His route is eccentric, but he spends a year orbiting the star. It was noticed in 1986 and after that a number of other objects were noted.
2007 TK7 is a Trojan asteroid that rotates in a stable position with us.
So, you know how many satellites the Earth has. The planet has a single Moon, but this is only now. We could have other satellites or will have them in the future. In the meantime, let's enjoy our bright neighbor.
It is now generally accepted that the only natural companion The Earth is the Moon, but assumptions about the existence of other satellites have been repeatedly put forward by astronomers, published in popular publications and described in works of fiction.
There are several near-Earth objects that are sometimes called "second moons" or "second satellites." Firstly, these are asteroids whose orbits are in resonance with the Earth’s orbit. For example, quasi-satellites such as Cruithney move in orbital resonance with the Earth but orbit the Sun, or Earth Trojan asteroids such as 2010 TK7 move in the same orbit as the Earth but in front of or behind it. In addition, it is possible for the Earth to capture temporary satellites whose orbit is unstable. An example of such a satellite is asteroid 2006 RH 120.
But it is much more interesting to see how battles on the scientific front regarding our issue took place in the past.
Satellites of Valtemata
In 1898, Dr. Georg Waltemath, a scientist from Hamburg, announced that he had discovered a system of small satellites orbiting the Earth.
One of the satellites described by Waltemath was located at a distance of 1,030,000 km from the Earth, had a diameter of 700 km and orbited the Earth in 119 days. It was also pointed out that the satellite does not reflect enough light to be visible to the naked eye, but at certain times it is still visible. Waltemath made several predictions regarding possible moments of sighting of the satellite. Referring to observations made in 1881 in Greenland, he pointed out that "it sometimes shines in the night like the Sun, but only for an hour or so." Valtemat believed that his companion had previously been observed by Giovanni Cassini and Jacques Maraldi, who took him for sunspot. In addition, he referred to observations of the satellite of Venus in St. Neot in 1761, believing that in this case a second satellite of the Earth was observed. However, he did not provide any arguments in favor of such an interpretation of these observations.
In February 1898, according to Valtemata's calculations, the satellite was supposed to pass across the disk of the Sun. On February 4, 1898, employees of the post office of the city of Greifswald, observing the Sun with the naked eye, saw a dark object, the diameter of which was approximately 1/5 of the diameter of the Sun, passing from 1:10 to 2:10 Berlin time. However, at the same time, the Sun was observed by astronomers W. Winkler and Ivo von Benko (Austria), who saw nothing but ordinary sunspots.
Failures did not weaken Waltemata's desire to search for a new satellite, and on July 20, 1898, he sent a message to Science magazine about the discovery of a third satellite, located at a distance of 427,250 km from the Earth and having a diameter of 746 km. Waltemath called it "a truly stormy and magnetic satellite." The magazine commented on this message in this way: “Perhaps it is this satellite that is driving the madness.” “perhaps it is also the moon presiding over lunacy” ).
Further searches
The possibility of the Earth having a second satellite was studied by William Pickering. To begin with, he calculated that a satellite orbiting at a distance of 320 km from earth's surface, which has a diameter of 30 cm and the same reflectivity as the Moon, should be visible in a 3-inch telescope, while a satellite with a diameter of 3 m will be visible to the naked eye. Pickering did not search for additional satellites of the Earth, although he had been searching for a moon since 1888. Having found no such satellites, he concluded that if they existed, they must be less than 3 meters in diameter. Also in 1923, he published the article "Meteor Satellite" in the magazine Popular Astronomy, which contained an appeal to amateur astronomers to search for small natural satellites.
Clyde Tombaugh (discoverer of Pluto) was tasked by the US Army with searching for near-Earth asteroids. In March 1954, a press release was published explaining the need for such research: it was indicated that such satellites could play the role of a kind of transfer stations for spaceships. Their detection was also necessary in order to ensure that there were no false alarms from radars tracking spacecraft. In fact, this was the first systematic search for objects in near-Earth space. The search technique involved the use of a camera configured to track an object orbiting the Earth at a certain altitude. In the resulting images, the stars will appear as long lines, a satellite located at a given altitude will be visible as a dot, and one with a higher or lower orbit will be visible as a short line.
One of the “conspiracy theories” is associated with this search. According to ufologist Donald Keyhoe, who later became director National Research Committee on Aerial Phenomena, citing Pentagon sources, the search was undertaken to detect two objects orbiting the Earth, detected by long-range radar in mid-1953. Keyhoe stated in May 1954 that the search had been successful and that one or both of the objects had been discovered and were man-made. On August 23, 1954, Aviation Week magazine published a report that two natural satellites had been found at a distance of 400 and 600 kilometers from Earth. However, Tombaugh publicly stated that no objects had been found. Popular Mechanics magazine reported in October 1955:
Professor Tombaugh remains tight-lipped about the study's findings. It does not say whether any small natural satellites have been discovered. He, however, pointed out that press reports about the discovery 18 months ago of natural satellites at a distance of 400 and 600 kilometers from the Earth do not correspond to reality. He also added that the research program has nothing to do with reports of sightings of so-called “flying saucers.”
In 1959, Tombaugh presented the final conclusion, which stated that the search was inconclusive: no objects brighter than magnitude 12-14 had been discovered.
Currently, an active search for objects in near-Earth space is carried out within the framework of several projects: Spaceguard, LINEAR, NEAT, LONEOS, the Catalina survey, etc. No permanent satellites were discovered by these studies.
To be continued
Solar system. Fifth in diameter, mass and density among all planets and the largest among terrestrial planets , which also includes Mercury, Venus and Mars . Look at the night sky and count the visible satellites. You can only see one satellite on it. Is this really true? As a rule, the planets of the solar system have several satellites. Jupiter has a large number of There are 67 natural satellites, and even Mars has two asteroids that act as satellites.Maybe the Earth has other satellites?
The Moon is the only recognized satellite of the Earth
Official science answers that no, Earth has one satellite. At least for now. Perhaps the Earth used to have large quantity satellites, and it was millions or even long billions of years ago. Oddities of the terrain on the other side Moon can be explained by a collision with a second satellite, which provoked surface defects tens of kilometers deep.
Satellites may come and go over billions of years of Earth's history.
For example, Mars has two satellites, but this was not always the case. Phobos , the large Moon, is moving in a spiral and is expected to crash into the planet within the next ten million years. And so in the future Mars will have only one Moon called Deimos.
Orbit of asteroid 2006 RH120
It is also possible for the Earth to capture an alien Moon. The largest satellite Neptune, called Triton , orbits the planet in the opposite direction from the other satellites. This suggests that the Triton satellite actually captured one of the Kuiper Belt objects that came too close to this planet.
NASA photo of 2006 RH120
In fact, our planet has already captured a 5-meter asteroid with the short name 2006 RH120. It orbited Earth four times during 2006/2007 before it was flung back into outer space.
Thus, we can guess the course of events in the past.
Additionally, our planet could have more moons that have not yet been discovered because they are simply too small. Researchers estimate that there could be metre-sized asteroids in Earth's orbit that could remain there for hundreds of years before gravitational interactions push them out again.
There are other objects that interact rather strangely with the Earth's orbit. Scientists do not consider them moons, but they are very close.
Orbit of asteroid 3753 Cruithne
Asteroid 3753 Cruithne is constantly in orbital resonance with Earth. It has a highly eccentric orbit that corresponds to exactly one year of the Sun's orbit. This asteroid moves slowly, making a horseshoe-shaped path across the sky. Since Cruithne's discovery in 1986, several other resonant near-Earth objects have already been discovered.
Asteroid 2010 TK7 is known as the Trojan asteroid. It moves in the same orbit around the Sun as the Earth, at a gravitationally stable point in space.
To sum up, we can answer - so far the Earth has only one satellite. Our planet may have had more moons in the past and could capture some in the future, but for now we must enjoy the one moon we have.
But this is the moon that was in our sky last night.
Best regards, Evgeniy Brik.
