Torry C
Favorite Answer
This is a difficult question to answer if considering certain scenarios.
In a way, yes, planets fit the definition of a satellite in reference to the Sun and moons fit the definition in relation to planets. So in this instance a planet could also be considered a satellite.
However, an smaller body orbiting a larger does not qualify that body as a planet. The definition of a planet is generally contested but typically holds at lest these features. A body that is large enough to have its own gravity to make it spherical, orbits a star (such as the Sun), has cleared the area around it of smaller bodies, does not have enough mass to start thermonuclear reactions.
An example of a satellite that orbits the sun and has its own satellites is seen in the asteroids Ida and Dactyl in that Dactyl is in orbit around Ida, but Ida is not classified as a planet.
tekwatcher
In the strict sense of the term, there are already satellites that are planets. Obviously the 8 primary planets that orbit the Sun including the Trans-Neptunian Objects and Kuipier Belt Objects are all satellites of the Sun. Various moons orbiting Jupiter and Saturn also carry planetary status and are, by definition, satellites.
Can we build a planet sized satellite, sure, in the future with enough time and material. Can a moon or planet (such as Mercury) come here and become a satellite/moon? Sure, not likely, but it is possible.
Irv S
It's just a word. Depends how you use it.
The Earth and the other planets are 'satellites' of the sun.
We have launched some objects clear of earth that have taken up solar orbits.
Since the big Pluto debate, a "Planet" has to be rather larger than
anything we can build, now, or in the forseeable future to carry the name..
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aladdinwa
Yes, it is. The planets (including the Earth) are satellites of our Sun.
A satellite is: "Any object in orbit about some body capable of exerting a gravitational force."
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Tom S
No. By definition a satellite orbits a planet and a planet orbits a star.