Planetary Satellites

• Satellite • Any body that orbits antoher

• Natural satellites are moons

• 6 of the 8 planets have at least one moon

• Mercury and Venus do NOT have a moon

• Earth • 1 moon

• Mars • 2 moons• Phobus & Deimos

• Jupiter • At least 28 moons• 4 largest are Io,

Ganymede, Europa and Callisto

• Saturn • 24 moons• Largest is Titan

• Uranus • 21 moons• 5 major moons are

Titania, Oberon, Umbriel, Ariel and Miranda

• Neptune • 8 moons• Triton is the largest

• Pluto • 1 moons• Charon – almost the

same size as Pluto

Solar System Debris

• Comets • A mixture of dust, gas and ice that orbits the sun

• Nicknamed “dirty snowballs”

• Haley’s comet comes around every 76 years, last seen in 1986

• Comet • Coma (ice and dust) and a tail (gas)

• Comets orbit the sun….

• The tail of the comet gets “blown” away by the solar wind

• Asteroids • Solid, rock-like fragments orbiting the sun between mars and jupiter

• Meteoroids • Icy, rocky fragments anywhere in space

• Meteors • Meteoroids that enter Earth’s atmosphere and begin to “burn” due to the presence of oxygen

• Meteor Showers • “shooting stars”

• Meteorites • A meteoroid that survives the trip through our atmosphere and actually impacts the Earth’s surface, forming impact craters