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The prograde satellites consist of the Himalia group and three others in groups of one. The retrograde moons are grouped into the Carme, Ananke and Pasiphae groups. Saturn has 146 moons with known orbits; 66 of them have received permanent designations, and 63 have been named. Most of them are quite small.
The known icy moons in this range are all ellipsoidal (except Proteus), but trans-Neptunian objects up to 450–500 km radius may be quite porous. [10] For simplicity and comparative purposes, the values are manually calculated assuming that the bodies are all spheres. The size of solid bodies does not include an object's atmosphere.
[68] [44] Out of all the large moons, Titan is the only one with a dense (surface pressure of 1.5 atm), cold atmosphere, primarily made of nitrogen with a small fraction of methane. [69] The dense atmosphere frequently produces bright white convective clouds, especially over the south pole region. [69]
The term satellite thus became the normal one for referring to an object orbiting a planet, as it avoided the ambiguity of "moon". In 1957, however, the launching of the artificial object Sputnik created a need for new terminology. [5] The terms man-made satellite and artificial moon were very quickly abandoned in favor of the simpler satellite ...
The Galilean moons are named after Galileo Galilei, who observed them in either December 1609 or January 1610, and recognized them as satellites of Jupiter in March 1610; [2] they remained the only known moons of Jupiter until the discovery of the fifth largest moon of Jupiter Amalthea in 1892. [3]
In astronomy, a regular moon or a regular satellite is a natural satellite following a relatively close, stable, and circular orbit which is generally aligned to its primary's equator. They form within discs of debris and gas that once surrounded their primary, usually the aftermath of a large collision or leftover material accumulated from the ...
The distinction between a satellite and a classical planet was not recognized until after the heliocentric model of the Solar System was established. When in 1610 Galileo discovered the first satellites of another planet (the four Galilean moons of Jupiter), he referred to them as "four planets flying around the star of Jupiter at unequal intervals and periods with wonderful swiftness."
Asteroid moons; A number of smaller groups distinct from the asteroid belt; The outer Solar System with the giant planets, their satellites, trojan asteroids and some minor planets. Jupiter. Rings of Jupiter; Complete list of Jupiter's natural satellites. Galilean moons. Io; Europa; Ganymede; Callisto; Jupiter trojans; Jupiter-crossing minor ...