Satellites are interesting facts. Interesting facts about the satellites of the planets

We invite you to find out some interesting and cognitive facts about the satellites of the planets Solar system.

1. Ganymede is a great satellite. It is the largest satellite not only of Jupiter, but also of the solar system as a whole. He is so great. Which has its own magnetic field.

2. Miranda is an ugly companion. It is considered the ugly duckling of the solar system. It seems as if someone has blinded a satellite from pieces and sent it to revolve around Uranus. Miranda has some of the most picturesque landscapes in the entire solar system: mountain ranges and valleys form quaint crowns and canyons, some of which are 12 times deeper. The grand canyon... For example, if a stone is thrown into one of these, it will fall down only after 10 minutes.

3. Callisto is the moon with the largest number of craters. Unlike others celestial bodies Callisto has no geological activity, which makes its surface unprotected. Therefore, this satellite looks like the most "battered" one.

4. Dactyl is an asteroid satellite. It is the smallest satellite in the entire solar system, being only one mile wide. In the photo you can see the moon Ida, and Dactyl is a small dot on the right. The uniqueness of this satellite lies in the fact that it does not revolve around the planet, but around an asteroid. Previously, scientists believed that asteroids were small to have satellites, but, as you can see, they were wrong.

5. Epimetheus and Janus are satellites that miraculously escaped collision. Both satellites revolve around Saturn in the same orbit. They probably used to be one companion. What is noteworthy: every 4 years, as soon as the moment of collision comes, they change places.

6. Enceladus is the bearer of the ring. It is the inner moon of Saturn and reflects nearly 100% of the light. The surface of Enceladus is filled with geysers, which eject particles of ice and dust into space, forming the "E" ring of Saturn.

7. Triton - with ice volcanoes. It is the largest moon of Neptune. It is also the only satellite of the solar system that rotates in the opposite direction from the rotation of the planet itself. Volcanoes on Triton are active, but they do not emit lava, but water and ammonia, which freeze on the surface.

8. Europe - with large oceans. This moon of Jupiter has the flattest surface in the solar system. The thing is that the satellite is a continuous ocean covered with ice. There is 2-3 times more water here than on Earth.

9. Io is a volcanic hell. This satellite is similar to Mordor from The Lord of the Rings. Almost the entire surface of the satellite, which revolves around Jupiter, is covered with volcanoes, which erupt very often. There are no craters on Io, as lava fills its surface, thereby flattening it.

11. Titan - a home away from home. This is perhaps the strangest satellite in the solar system. He is the only one with an atmosphere that is several times denser than on Earth. What was under the opaque clouds remained unknown for many years. Titan's atmosphere is based on nitrogen, just like on Earth, but it also contains other gases, such as methane. If the methane level on Titan is high, then methane rain on the satellite can fall. The presence of large bright spots on the satellite's surface suggests that there may be liquid seas on the surface, which may include methane. It should be noted that Titan is the most suitable celestial body for the search for life.

The huge orange-red Jupiter is the largest gaseous planet in the solar system. The ancient Romans gave it a name that is quite appropriate: Jupiter (among the ancient Greeks - Zeus) was the supreme god on Olympus. He has a huge number of large and small companions, who were named according to the names of numerous lovers, wives and descendants of the aforementioned god.

The most significant satellites of Jupiter are Ganymede, Europa, Io and Callisto. They are also called Galilean satellites, since the famous Galileo Galilei was the first to notice them in the sky back in the winter of 1610. To do this, he needed a telescope that increased in size 32 times.

Like Jupiter itself, its moons are very bright, and their orbits are far from each other, so they are easy to see even with modern field glasses.

Eight interplanetary stations have consistently explored the planet and its satellites. Based on these studies, we can confidently say that all the moons of Jupiter are very unusual and each of them has its own "zest".

Io is the most colorful satellite. This is explained by the fact that there are many actively spewing black, red, yellow, brown, orange lava on it. There are no active volcanoes on any other celestial bodies in the solar system besides the Earth. Therefore, Io bears the title of the most volcanically active planet. And in the ionosphere of this satellite, under the influence of the magnetic field of Jupiter, high-intensity flares are continuously flashing.

Jupiter's other moon, Europa, is the lightest and smoothest solid celestial body in the solar system. The hills on its surface do not exceed one meter in height. Asteroid craters are also shallow and almost invisible. The explanation for this phenomenon is that the entire planet is covered with a thick layer of ice, under which scientists assume the presence of a huge salty ocean. When cracks and faults form on the surface of Europa, water enters there and immediately freezes, filling in the irregularities. Moreover, primitive life can be found in the waters of the "subglacial" ocean. True, everything is complicated by the very high on the planet. But scientists expect to solve all scientific and technical problems and, with the help of probes, thoroughly investigate this mysterious satellite of Jupiter.

The largest of all satellites is Ganymede. It is larger than Mercury in size, and could well be an independent planet of the solar system, if it revolved not around Jupiter, but around the Sun. Ganymede is covered with a layer of ice, and its thickness is much greater than on Europa. The entire surface of the satellite is lined with even furrows, the width of which reaches 15 km and the length is 30 km. Another interesting feature of Ganymede is the presence of active "volcanoes" that spew out saline, not lava. From atmospheric phenomena, astronomers have discovered the fallout of frost, the composition of which has not been studied.

Callisto is the farthest and most ancient moon of Jupiter. It also consists mainly of ice, water and minerals, and its entire surface is covered with craters of various diameters. Magnetic field it does not, and therefore does not have a solid metal core.

In addition to four large ones, there are also smaller satellites of Jupiter - there are about sixty of them. These are both boulders and asteroids remote from Jupiter, which fell into it, such as Karma and Sinope. There are also so-called inner moons of Jupiter, which orbits inside Io's orbit. On the surface of these moons, the largest of which are called Amalthea and Adrastea, volcanic outbursts of Io are deposited.

As you know, the Moon is a satellite of the Earth, and, as you know, it is not the only one in the Solar System. In our today's list, we will talk about other famous satellites, and there will be many of them.

Depending on how you count, over 400 satellites can be counted. We can say that natural satellites of planets and dwarf planets There are only 181 solar systems. In fact, 19 of them are large enough to have a nearly spherical shape. This means that if they orbit around the Sun, they themselves would be considered either planets or dwarf planets.

The first satellites discovered after our Moon were the Galilean satellites orbiting Jupiter. They were discovered in 1610, as you might have guessed, by Galileo Galilei. This happened long before robotic spacecraft, telescopes, and robotic probes went into space to explore the solar system and discover a large number of other satellites.

Since 2000, new technologies have made it possible to detect many other satellites with telescopes. These 25 little-known facts about satellites in our solar system will interest you!

25. On the moon of Saturn, Enceladus, there are fountains that throw huge jets of water into space. According to NASA, it appears to be one of the most hospitable places in the solar system outside of Earth.

24. In addition to Charon, Pluto actually has four more satellites that orbit chaotically. They most likely formed a long time ago after the collision of two bodies.

23. The satellites of Saturn Epimetheus and Janus are co-orbital, that is, they actually move in the same orbit, periodically changing places. However, they avoid colliding with each other thanks to gravitational forces that push one moon into a higher orbit and the other into a lower one.

22. Ganymede (moon of Jupiter) and Titan (moon of Saturn) are the two largest moons in the solar system. In fact, each of them is larger than Mercury.

21. Neso is the most distant satellite Neptune. It revolves in its orbit around Neptune at such a great distance that it takes 26 years for one revolution around the planet.

20. Phobos, one of the satellites of Mars, rises and sets in the sky of Mars twice a day (moreover, it rises in the west and sets in the east). This is because it orbits faster than Mars rotates on its axis.

19. On the largest moon of Neptune, Triton, there are geysers that spew dust particles into the atmosphere to an altitude of 8 km.

18. There is more water on Jupiter's moon Europa than on Earth. The moon's subsurface oceans may be as deep as 170 km.

17. Jupiter has 67 satellites. This is more than any other planet.

16. Along the equator of Iapetus, the moon of Saturn, a ridge runs 13 km high, making it look like a walnut.

15. Saturn's moon Rhea may have its own ring system. If the hypothesis is confirmed, then these rings will be the first ones found in a satellite in the Universe.

14. Saturn's moon Mimas resembles the Death Star, and the depiction of temperature fluctuations on its surface resembles Pakman.

13. Deimos, the smallest satellite of Mars, has an escape velocity of 5.2 m / s. This means that if you run up and jump, you can fly off of it.

12. Neptune's gravity will one day destroy its own satellite, Triton. Thanks to this, the planet will have a ring similar to the ring of Saturn.

11. The moons of Mars are called Phobos and Deimos, which in Latin means “fear” and “horror”, respectively.

10. The mountains on Titan, the moon of Saturn, were named after the mountains from the JRR trilogy. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings".

9. NASA deliberately destroyed its automatic spacecraft "Galileo" in the atmosphere of Jupiter in order to protect Europa, one of its satellites, since, according to scientists, life is possible on it.

8. The atmosphere on Titan, the moon of Saturn, is so dense and the gravity is so low that one could “fly” on it.

7. Danish astronomer Ole Roemer was the first to determine the speed of light. He did this in 1670 while observing the orbit of Jupiter's moon Io.

6. On our moon no man has set foot for 44 years.

5. Pluto is technically part of “ binary system”, Forming her with her companion Charon. This means that none of the cosmic bodies orbits the other separately - they orbit each other, being a double planetary system Pluto - Charon.

A man from early childhood, when he looks at starry sky and the Moon, asks the question of how the cosmos, stars, planets, the galaxy, the universe are arranged. We are attracted by everything unknown and incomprehensible. The Soviet scientists managed to lift the veil into the secret of space under the leadership of the brilliant design engineer Sergei Pavlovich Korolev, under whose leadership the first artificial Earth satellite (abbreviated - AES) was launched.

First start

It was the USSR that, on October 4, 1957, was the first to launch into outer space the simplest earth satellite or PS-1 on the R-7 launch vehicle, from the Baikonur cosmodrome. The creative team of the creators of the satellite was headed by Sergey Korolev.

Sergey Korolev and Yuri Gagarin

The technical characteristics of the first artificial earth satellite are rather primitive compared to the satellites that are launched in our time.

PS-1 was a sphere with a diameter of about 58 cm, to which four antennas 2.4 and 2.9 meters long were attached, they were needed to receive radio reception. PS-1 weight was 83.6 kg. Inside the satellite there were pressure and temperature sensors, fans switched on from relays, which began to work if the temperature rose above + 30C, a switching device that transmitted a signal from the satellite to Earth.

PS-1 separated from the carrier rocket 295 seconds after launch, and already 315 seconds after launch, it sent the first radio signal to the ground that any radio amateur could receive, these were signals repeated for about 2 minutes: "Beep, Beep". These signals shocked the whole world, the era of astronautics and the arms race between the USSR and the USA began.

PS-1 stayed in the elliptical orbit of the Earth for 92 days and completed 1440 revolutions around the planet, it continued to transmit the radio signal for 20 days. After that, the speed of rotation of PS-1 began to decrease, and on January 4, 1957, it burned out in the dense layers of the atmosphere due to high friction.

Space technology

Nowadays, about 13 thousand artificial satellites of the Earth are already surfing the expanses of the universe, most of them belong to the United States, Russia, and China. The technology for launching satellites is to give it as much great speed... Once in the elliptical orbit of the earth, the satellite will be able to rotate and transmit signals for a long time itself, without turning on the engines, due to the gained speed.

For modern world artificial satellites are an integral part of our world, communication satellites, navigation satellites, meteorological satellites, reconnaissance satellites, biosatellites and many other artificial satellites help us in everyday life.

We forecast the weather, plot new routes, use cellular communications, satellite TV, wireless Internet, draw up maps and register land in connection with a satellite, and all this thanks to artificial earth satellites.

Space exploration

O artificial satellites There are many interesting facts about the Earth, but unmanned space vehicles are also exploring other planets. So in addition to the satellites that make it easier for us our daily life, humanity does not stand still and at present there are artificial satellites of the Moon, Mars, Sun, Venus.

An artificial satellite of the Moon, the first to be launched by scientists from the USSR, this satellite transmitted photographs of the surface of the moon, with the help of which scientists were convinced of its specific shape, learned its structure and features of gravity.
Artificial satellite of Mars: three satellites, two Soviet and one American, began to study this planet at the same time.

All these satellites had different tasks, some photographed the planet's surface, others studied the temperature, relief, streamlining of the planet, the presence of water, but it's worth noting that the first artificial satellite that made a soft landing on the surface of this planet was the Soviet satellite Mars-3.

The first artificial satellite of the Sun appeared when it was not going to be launched there at all. The NASA satellite, which was supposed to explore the lunar surface, flew over the orbit of the moon and stopped in the orbit of the sun. Russia also has its own artificial satellite of the sun, which studies salt activity and transmits geomagnetic flares and oscillations.

Exploration of Phobos, a satellite of Mars

Artificial satellites of Venus. In the Soviet Union, he was the first to send artificial satellites in 1975, with the help of which they obtained high-quality images of the surface of this planet.

October 4, 1957 - memorable date for all mankind, on this day in Russian Federation celebrate the day space forces RF, and all over the world the celebration of the launch of the first earth satellite.

Interesting facts about the satellites of the planets of the solar system.

1. Ganymede is a great satellite

Ganymede is the largest moon of Jupiter and, in general, the entire solar system. It is so huge that it has its own magnetic field.

2. Miranda is an ugly companion

Miranda is the ugly duckling of the solar system. At first glance, it seems as if someone simply blinded a satellite out of pieces and sent it to revolve around Uranus. Miranda has one of the most diverse landscapes in the entire solar system with its steep mountain ranges, valleys - crowns and canyons, some of which are 12 times deeper than the Grand Canyon. If you throw a stone into one of these, it will reach the bottom only after 10 minutes.

3. Callisto - the moon with the largest number of craters

Callisto, a moon of Jupiter, is just a pimply teenager in the solar system. Unlike other celestial bodies of the same size, Callisto has no geological activity to protect its surface. Therefore, this satellite is the most "beaten". There are so many craters on it that they began to overlap one on one, forming whole rings inside other craters.

4. Dactyl - an asteroid satellite

Just a mile wide, Dactyl is the smallest satellite in the solar system. The picture shows the asteroid Ida, and Dactyl is just a small dot on the right. Dactyl is an amazing object because it does not revolve around a planet, but around an asteroid. Previously, astronomers believed that asteroids were too small to have satellites. But no.

5. Epimetheus and Janus - satellites who miraculously escaped collision

Epimetheus and Janus are moons of Saturn that have practically the same orbit, possibly because they were previously the same satellite. But here's the thing: every 4 years they change places in a near-collision.

6. Enceladus - the bearer of the ring

Enceladus is one of the main internal satellites of Saturn. It is also one of the objects that reflect almost 100% of the light. The surface of Enceladus is covered with geysers, emitting particles of ice and dust into space, which are the source of Saturn's "E" ring.

7. Triton - with ice volcanoes

Triton is the largest moon of Neptune. It is also the only satellite of the solar system rotating around its planet in the direction opposite to the rotation of the planet itself. Triton is volcanically active. But while other volcanoes emit lava, volcanoes on Triton spew water and ammonia, which freeze on the surface.

8. Europe - with big oceans

Europa, another moon of Jupiter, has one of the flattest surfaces in the solar system. This is because the entire satellite is one continuous ocean of water under a layer of ice. But this water exists only because of the tidal heating of Jupiter. This ocean has 2–3 times more water than on Earth.

9. Io - volcanic hell

And about

Due to Jupiter's tremendous frictional force, volcanic activity is constantly occurring on Io. This satellite resembles Mordor from The Lord of the Rings. In fact, the entire surface of Io is covered with volcanoes, and eruptions occur so often that Voyager was able to capture the process itself (red spots in the image). There are no craters on Io, as lava fills them and thus flattens the moon's surface.

10. Titan - a home away from home

Titan is the strangest satellite in the solar system. He's the only one who has dense atmosphere(denser than on Earth), and what lies under the opaque clouds remained a mystery for a long time. Titan's atmosphere is based on nitrogen, like on Earth, but contains other gases, such as methane. If the methane density is high enough, methane rain can fall on Titan. The existence of large bright spots on the satellite's surface suggests that there may be liquid seas on the surface, which are likely composed of methane. It may take a long time, but Titan is one of the most suitable places for the search for life.

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