My Science School

          The heavenly bodies that revolve round the sun are called planets. There are nine planets in our solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. The bodies revolving round these planets are called their ‘satellites’ or ‘moons’.

          Scientific investigations made so far have revealed that all planets do not have satellites. For example, Mercury and Venus do not have any satellite. Earth has 1 satellite - the moon. Mars has 2 satellites and the Jupiter has 16. The number of the moons revolving round Saturn is 24. The Uranus and Neptune have 15 and 6 satellites respectively. Pluto has 1 satellite.

          The size of different satellites is different. There are some satellites which are bigger than moon. The diameter of two satellites of the Mars, Deimos and Phobos, and the outer satellites of the Jupiter, Ganymede and Callisto are as big as Mercury and Mars. The diameters of Titan and Triton - the satellites of Saturn and Neptune are 5150 kms and 2700 kms respectively and more than the diameter of our moon.

          Except Titan, all the satellites have small force of gravity. As such none of them has any atmosphere. Because of low temperature at Titan, it has an atmosphere consisting of methane and hydrogen. But there is no life on this satellite.

          As yet we have not come across any satisfactory theory regarding the origin of the satellites. However, it is believed that their origin is similar to that of our solar system.