Expert: Paul Wagner - 8/16/2007

Question
Paul, I just asked you about the stars and you suggested they may be satillites. My daughter wanted me to ask you, could they be manmade satillites or satillites from planets? Some of them would stop and change direction!!!
Thank you for your very informative information!!!!!

Answer
Hi Trish

Nice to hear from you again!

Yes, they are man-made satellites, orbiting Earth.  They do everything from provide service for our telephones and GPS units to take photos of the weather.  

The only satellites of other planets that we can see are the four biggest moons of Jupiter, which can be seen in a pair of binoculars.  Jupiter is that very bright white star in the southern sky right now--and if you look at it through binoculars, you will see a few dots on either side of the planet.  Those are its four biggest moons.  And if you look again tomorrow night, you will that they have moved around completely.

That's what Gallileo saw in his primitive telescope that convince him that the Earth is not the center of the Universe, back in the early 1600's.

Paul Wagner