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Satellites are small spherical celestial bodies which revolve round a Planet. As a particular Planet revolves round the Sun, its Satellites follow the said Planet in its revolution. Satellites are opaque, they don’t have any light of their own, and they only shine by the reflected light of the Sun.
Among the four terrestrial or inner planets, Mercury and Venus have no natural satellites. Earth has one large natural satellite, known as the ‘Moon’. Mars has two tiny natural satellites, ‘Phobos’ and Deimos. Among the giant Planets, Jupiter has 63 known satellites, which include ‘Ganymede’, ‘Callisto’, ‘Lo’ and ‘Europa’. Ganymede, the largest one, is larger than the planet Mercury. Saturn has 53 confirmed moons with nine additional provisional moons awaiting confirmation. The largest among them, ‘Titan’, is a bit bigger than the planet Mercury. It is the second-largest moon in the solar system, only after Jupiter's moon ‘Ganymede’. Another moon of Saturn, called ‘Enceladus’, appears to have an ocean under its frozen surface. Uranus has 27 known moons, while Neptune has 13 known moons. Among the moons of Neptune, ‘Triton’ is the smallest among the largest Satellites, which has more mass than all smaller natural satellites together.
Among the identified dwarf planets, Ceres does not have any known natural satellite. Pluto has the relatively large natural satellite, named ‘Charon’ and four smaller natural satellites – ‘Styx’, ‘Nix’, ‘Kerberos’, and ‘Hydra’. Haumea has two natural satellites, while Eris and Makemake have one each..
