Natural satellites

A natural satellite or moon is, in the most common usage, an astronomical body that orbits a planet or minor planet (or sometimes another Small Solar System Body).

In the Solar System there are six planetary satellite systems containing 178 known natural satellites. Four IAU-listed dwarf planets are also known to have natural satellites: Pluto, Haumea, Makemake, and Eris. As of January 2012^[update], over 200 minor-planet moons have been discovered.

The Earth–Moon system is unique in that the ratio of the mass of the Moon to the mass of Earth is much greater than that of any other natural-satellite–planet ratio in the Solar System (although there are minor-planet systems with even greater ratios, notably the Pluto–Charon system). At 3,474 km (2,158 miles) across, Earth's Moon is 0.27 times the diameter of Earth.

The first known natural satellite was the Moon, but it was considered a "planet" until Copernicus' introduction of heliocentrism in 1543. Until the discovery of the Galilean satellites in 1610, however, there was no opportunity for referring to such objects as a class. Galileo chose to refer to his discoveries as Planetæ ("planets"), but later discoverers chose other terms to distinguish them from the objects they orbited.

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