natural satellite

Also known as moon, satellite, secondary planet

celestial body that orbits a planet or other smaller body in turn directly orbiting a star

AI overview

A natural satellite is a space object that orbits around a planet or smaller body, which itself orbits a star—like Earth's Moon circling our planet. Natural satellites matter because they influence planetary conditions, such as ocean tides, and provide valuable information about how planets and solar systems form and evolve.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

~20 min read

Encyclopedic overview

The Moon orbiting around Earth (observed by the Deep Space Climate Observatory)

A natural satellite is, in the most common usage, an astronomical body that orbits a planet, dwarf planet, or small Solar System body (or sometimes another natural satellite). Natural satellites are colloquially referred to as moons, by analogy with the Moon, Earth's natural satellite, classically also known as Selene or Luna. In English, the Moon with a capital M denotes Earth's satellite, while moon with a lowercase m is used generically for natural satellites.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “natural satellite” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.