Satellites

    According to Nasa.gov, a satellite is a moon, planet or machine that orbits a planet or star. With this definition of a satellite, we can also consider the planets in our solar system, like the Earth, a satellite since it orbits the sun. These are known as “Natural Satellites.” More specifically, a "satellite" refers to a machine that is launched into space and revolves around Earth or another body in space. These machines are used by various different researchers to help better understand the universe.

    Some meteorologists use satellites to take pictures of the planet in order to predict weather and track hurricanes. Other meteorologists take pictures of other planets, the sun, black holes, dark matter, or faraway galaxies. Many other satellites are still used mainly for communications, such as beaming TV signals and phone calls around the world.

    Satellites are able to give researchers a bird's-eye view allowing them to see large areas of Earth at one time. This ability allows satellites to collect more data even quicker than instruments on the ground. Satellites are also very useful because they can provide much clearer images of outer space than telescopes. This is because they reside above the natural barriers like clouds and dust molecules that can block the view from the ground level.  Satellites are also used to make TV signals and phone calls possible. These devices are able to send their signals up to the satellite, which almost instantly sends them back down to different locations on Earth.

    Out of the 2,666 operational satellites circling the globe in April 2020, 1,007 were for communication services. 446 of these satellites are used for observing the Earth and 97 for navigation/ GPS purposes. Right now, there are nearly 6,000 satellites circling our tiny planet. About 60% of those are defunct satellites or space junk, and roughly 40% are operational.