Definition
A natural satellite is a small solar system body of natural origin that orbits a larger solar system body. This may include moons around planets and small objects in orbit around dwarf planets or asteroids (Fig. 1).
The Earth and the Moon, shown to scale to illustrate the difference in physical size. The Earth Image (“Apollo 17 Picture of the Whole Earth”), courtesy of NASA; the Moon image (“Telescopic Image of the Full Moon”) courtesy of Gregory H. Revera
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Glenday C (2014) Guinness world records, p 186
Granvik M, Vaubailon J, Jedicke R (2012) The population of natural Earth satellites. Icarus 1(1):262–277. https://arxiv.org/abs/1112.3781
New World Encyclopedia (2018) Natural satellite. In: http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Natural_satellite
Peale SJ (1999) Origin and evolution of the natural satellites. Annu Rev Astron Astrophys 37:533–602
Sinnott RW (2007) Earth’s “other moon”. In: https://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-news/earths-other-moon/
Wikipedia (2018) Natural satellite. In: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_satellite#Natural_satellites_of_the_Solar_System
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Cudnik, B. (2019). Satellite, Natural. In: Cudnik, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Lunar Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05546-6_160-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05546-6_160-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-05546-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-05546-6
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Physics and AstronomyReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Chemistry, Materials and Physics