Describe the difference(s) between planets and natural satellites?
472607
planets orbit stars, satellites orbit planets
118436
The size wise order of the planets in our Solar system is as follows:-\n1) Jupiter, 2) Saturn,3) Uranus or Herschel,4) Neptune\n5) Earth, 6) Venus, 7)Mars,8)Mercury,9)Pluto.\nThe largest is Jupiter and the smallest is Pluto. Our moon is a natural satellite of the earth and not an independent planet. It is smaller than Pluto.
873458
http://sse.jpl.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=SolarSys&Display=Overview\n\nCheck out this website, you can find all the info you need about each of the planets and the sun here.
451278
here is a calculator for determining planet and orbit sizes to scale.  i hope this helps.\n\nhttp://www.exploratorium.edu/ronh/solar_system/
91699
Stars are burning like our sun. Planets aren't burning like our earth. Planets usually orbit around suns.
861730
Geo satellites have a proscribed speed since they must orbit in the equatorial plane of the planet to be stationary in the sky relative to points on the earth.  \n\nPolar orbits can be at any altitude, so the speed will vary depending.
218700
Do mean "difference" or "distance"?\n\nIf it's difference, well, Venus is the 2nd planet from the sun, Mars is the 4th planet from the sun, and Jupiter is the 5th planet from the sun.\n\nVenus is a rocky planet just slightly smaller than earth with a hot, dense, atmosphere.\nMars is a rocky planet just over half the diameter of earth with a cold, atmosphere with a pressure of about 1/10 that of earth.\nJupiter is a gas giant that could contain many earths.\n\nI'm guessing that your question has more to do with the distances between the orbits of the planets rather than the actual distances between the planets because the distance between the planets can vary greatly depending on where each is it's orbit.\n\nThe site linke below has the distances in astronomical units and kilometers (km) from the sun for the orbits of each planet.  Maybe from that you can figure out the answer to your question.
180202
Neither. It's the mass of the planet itself. Everything that has mass projects a gravitational field. The more massive an object is, the bigger its gravitational "pull". This is why objects like the Sun can support several large planets, while Pluto (which has a moon about a third the size of it) gets pulled around by its moon.
285028
Go to Heavens Above.  They have a lot of information about the planets, as well as satellites that have been placed in orbit or sent out into the solar system.\n\nhttp://www.heavens-above.com
1170805
Well that is a very good question, and one that is being debated as we speak. We now know that Pluto is much smaller than we previously thought (it is a very small planet and a moon) And we have now discovered a very large asteroid that some people want to call planet 10. In fact some people want to reclassify Pluto as they think it is too small to be called a planet.\n\nThe problem is that there is really no "exact" definition of what a planet is. I mean obviously a large body that orbits a star, is part of the definition. but when you get to smaller objects in irregular orbits, are they planets? planetoids? asteroids? something else?\nSo as for how large does an object have to be?\nwe will have to wait for the IAU (International Astronomical Union)\nto come up with a rigidly defined definition.\n\npersonally, I say an object that has enough mass to cause gravity to shape it into a sphere and has its own atmosphere should be called a planet. But hey that is just my personal opinion.\ncheck out these articles.\n\nhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/259767.stm\n\nhttp://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/planet_denitions_030227.html
75988
A planet is a mass that orbits a central star, is massive enough to 'press' itself into a spherical shape but is not massive enough for nuclear fusion to take place.  In simpler terms, a planet is a large, usually rocky, rock that rotates around a star, like the sun.  Sometimes planets can be giant balls of gas (like Jupiter), but they still rotate none the less.
605325
the Earth 3rd planet from the sun; the only planet were life exists; the Earth moves around the sun.\n\nto know more about the earth or the astronomy and space contact me :)
936482
They are almost sister planets in that they are very close to the same size.  Earth is slightly denser.\n\nHowever, Earth is paradise to Venus' hell.  On Venus the atmosphere is over 70x denser than Earths, meaning you'd be crushed into a bloodspot the instant you stepped outside.  On the other hand, the 800 degree temperature would take you out first.  That is, if the sulfuric atmosphere didn't choke you out of existence.\n\nThere's nothing remotely similar to Earth on Venus.  They are similar in size, nothing more.
90765
A satellite is the moon of a planet.
268172
I'm not sure what you mean by the question. Gravity is a conservative force, which means that it is path-independant. Since an orbit by definition starts and ends at the same place (i'm assuming that the planets have perfect orbits for simplicity, which won't be true but will probably be nearly true), then the planets have effectly travelled a zero-length path. This means that the energy difference between start and finish is 0. The orbits contain no energy.
670758
Neptune: my favorite planet!\n\nYou have great tastes in planets my friend.  I will gladly help you out.  \n\nNeptune is about 49500 kilometers. in diameter, about four times the size of Earth, which is about 12800 kilometers. in diameter. Neptune and Uranus are almost the same size, but both seem tiny in comparison to mighty Jupiter, which is almost three times as large as either of them. \n\nAlso, At the center, there is a large rocky core about the size of earth, one of the largest cores of the planets.\n\nEnjoy!\n\nThank you for making this question!
193159
A star is basically a giant hydrogen bomb. It sits in space for billions of years fusing hydrogen into helium, creating loads of light and heat, among other things.\n\nA planet orbits a star, and is just a piece of matter that does not perform nuclear fusion. Some of them are rocky balls (like the Earth, or Mars), while some of them are giant balls of gas (like Jupiter, or Saturn).\n\nEDIT: fungusbrains1, planets twinkle too. They don't produce their own light, but they reflect light from the Sun. Any cosmic object whose light rays pass through the atmosphere twinkles.