What is a Trabant?
In addition to the well-known car model of the GDR and a military escort, the term "Trabant" also describes an astronomical object that is characterized by very specific properties. However, it is often unclear how a satellite differs from satellites or moons.
Trabant, moon and satellite - what is what?
A Trabant is in the astronomy a certain type of satellite that is characterized by a number of specific properties.
- More precisely, it concerns with satellites to natural astronomical objects that the artificial satellites or Spacecraft, which are used by humans for military, scientific and commercial purposes, are distinguished Need to become.
- The term "Trabant" comes from the Slavic and means on German as much as "companion". At first it was only used as a name for the earth's moon.
- Since then in the 17th In the 19th century it was recognized that other planets also have such natural satellites, so the term "moon" is also used for these satellites, based on the earth's satellites.
What distinguishes a Trabant?
- A planetary system is characterized by the fact that all "main bodies" orbit around a so-called central star. The earth and the other planets in our solar system all revolve around the sun on their own orbits.
- But it is the planets themselves which can have one or more (!) Satellites, which orbit you yourself and which "accompany" you on your journey around the sun.
- However, a satellite itself cannot have any other natural satellite that orbits it. At least no such case has yet been discovered or observed.
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While the earth has only one satellite - namely the moon - other planets such as Jupiter and Saturn have more than 60 such astronomical objects as companions. Taken together, the planets of the solar system have 170 known satellites.
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