What Does satelite Mean
The concept of satellite , which comes from the Latin satelles , can be used to name two astronomical objects with very different characteristics.
It can be, on the one hand, a celestial body that is classified as opaque, since it can only shine when reflecting the light that comes from the sun. These satellites have the peculiarity of revolving around a planet .
It is possible to speak, on the other hand, of artificial satellites . In this case, they are devices that trace orbits around our planet or another, and whose objective is to transfer equipment that allows information to be collected and retransmitted .
In the case of artificial satellites we can establish that there are several types of them depending on the missions or the areas in which they work. In this way, for example, we can speak of the so-called communications satellites that are basically used to act as if they were antennas in those areas that have little development or that are very large.
In this sense, it should be noted that Telstar 1 is the first of this type to be put into orbit, it did so in 1962. It should also be noted that this class of satellites are used, among other things, to be able to carry out broadcasting of television signals.
Another type of artificial satellites are the so-called meteorological ones that, as their own name indicates, are used to be able to know and study both the climate that exists on our planet and the atmospheric weather that exists in it. Thus, thanks to those you can glimpse the clouds, pollution or even the evolution of the ozone layer that exists in Antarctica.
And to these two classes of artificial satellites it is inevitable that we add a third. Specifically, we are referring to those known as spy satellites that are used primarily in the military or intelligence sectors. And it is that these allow to obtain secret and very important information in communication and observation tasks such as, they can be, the interception of signals in matters of attack.
It is important to note that the Earth has a single natural satellite : the Moon , which has a diameter of 3,476 kilometers and is 384,400 kilometers away from our planet. The natural satellites of any planet, by extension, are often referred to as moons .
Although, in general, we speak of a primary planet (in this case, the Earth ) and the satellite that orbits around it (the Moon ), there are cases in which the planet and the satellite have similar masses. The specialists, before this, speak of binary systems . That happens with Pluto and the satellite that receives the name of Charon .
The satellites of the Solar System can be classified into coorbital satellites (if they move in the same orbit), asteroid satellites (they are around asteroids), shepherd satellites (they allow to keep rings in their position) or Trojan satellites (a certain planet and a certain satellite also have other satellites in some points of Lagrange ).
As for artificial satellites , it could be said that they are ships sent into space by a launch vehicle. Once they do their job, they may continue to orbit and become space junk.
Finally, at a general level, a satellite is a human being or something that is under the influence of another or that directly has a dependency on it.