Some Planets Have More "Satellites" Than You Think

I was researching over the internet earlier just browsing through planets and their moons, when I came across Saturn and Jupiters moons. Usually, I thought, when I thought about how many moons a planet had it was 1, maybe 2 moons. Until I read how many Saturn and Jupiter have. Saturn has 60 moons! And Jupiter has 63! I thought that this was amazing, we are so used to seeing our planet, earth, with just one moon. Then to think that those planets out there have 60 and more, it blew my mind. Obviously, these moons are spread out over a vast distance around the planet, but none the less they are still their moons. The distances can range from 100 thousand km from the planet, all the way to 28 million km from the planet.

Satellites Mean More Than Just Technology

Before I started taking Astronomy class, I had always believed that satellites were objects launched into the atmosphere by humans that gathered information and took plenty of pictures. However, in astronomy I learned that a satellite is another name for moons. A moon is an object that orbits a planet. The name satellite came to be because a satellite is used to refer to any object orbiting another object. My two favorite moons are the two that orbit Mars, Deimos and Phobos. Two very small moons, but I like what their names translate to. Phobos is Greek for fear and Deimos is Greek for dread. An interesting fact about Phobos is that it is one of the least reflective bodies of the solar system. Deimos is the picture on top and Phobos is the moon on the bottom.

Galileo "The Space Exploration Telescope"

On october 18, 1989 Galileo was launched into space. It was created by NASA and utilized for space exploration. It was sent to Jupiter to study it's atmosphere, moons and surrounding magnetosphere. Galileo was the first satellite ever to encounter an asteroid, and to photograph an asteroids moon. The ultimate goal for Galileo is once it reaches Jupiter, to penetrate it's cloudy layer and take pictures. However, it will never reach the core of Jupiter because it is 60,000 km to the core from the cloud tops. In order for Galileo to even reach Jupiter, it needed to use the gravitational pull from other planets to sling shot it further and deeper into space. I think that satellites are a very incredible invention, to be able to throw these things up into space and gather information for us. Think about all that we have learned from them, and imagine how much more advanced they can only get with time..

Hubble "The Space Telescope"

What is it? What does it do? Well, the Hubble is a very large space telescope found above earths atmosphere. It has been orbiting planet earth since 1990 feeding scientists hundreds of thousands of images, which have helped them uncover many of our worlds mysteries. From three hundred and fifty three miles above earths surface, Hubble has dicovered many great things, including the age of our universe, which is said to be approximately 13 to 14 billion years old. Over 6000 articles have been published with information gathered using this massive space telescope. One of histories most important observatories, showing scientists protoplanetary disks, clumps of gas and dust around young stars that likely function as birthing grounds for new planets. It discovered that gamma-ray bursts occur in far-distant galaxies when gigantic stars collapse. Every 97 minutes Hubble does one complete rotation around earth, moving at the incredible speed of 5 miles per second. I think that this is an incredible object and one that will have an effect on the way we look at our planet, forever. Through it's clear photos and ability to capture things nothing else in the world can, makes it an amazing utensil to our learning. I do not think that the Hubble will live on for much longer, but it has done a great job in the time it has been orbiting earth. Who knows what they'll create next..

First Satellite Ever Launched

The first satellite ever launched into space was a Soviet satellite named Sputnik. It was launched on October 4th, 1957 as an articficial satellite that transmitted information via radio signals for three weeks to soviet scientists. Sputnik was about the size of a beach ball and it's weight in pounds was only 183.9. I think that it is incredible how far along the world today has advanced in technology and how much greater satellites are today. I can't even begin to imagine what they will be like in the future.