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A "natural satellite" is a body in space that revolves around (orbits) another body. Technically the planets are all satellites of the Sun, but the term is usually applied to the moons, moonlets, and other bodies circling a planet.

The usage is required to differentiate moons, which were always satellites, from man-made or artificial satellites which were increasingly referenced as merely "satellites".
Something not sent into space by humans, (eg not a sputnik, space station or rubbish). The moon, or even a captured asteroid, would be "natural"

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9y ago

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