Some take pictures of the planet that help meteorologists predict weather and track hurricanes.
Thousands of artificial, or man-made, satellites orbit Earth. But, usually, the word 'satellite' refers to a machine that is launched into space and moves around Earth or another body in space.Įarth and the Moon are examples of natural satellites. So, Earth is a satellite, because it orbits the Sun! The Moon is also a satellite because it orbits Earth. An orbit is a regular, repeating path that one object in space takes around another one. Image credit: Maxar Technologiesīut, did you know that our Earth and Moon are satellites, too? A satellite can be any object that orbits a planet, star, or moon. When we think of satellites, we usually think of something that looks like this.
