Whereas it is commonly thought that natural satellites in the Solar System may have formed in a way similar to
planets, a more accurate study show that this is not the case. In the last 20 years many scenarios of satellite
formation have been developped, and the main outcome is that there is a great diversity of processes at play. On
the one hand satellite of the giant planets may have formed in circumplanetary nebulas, one the other hand
satellites of the terrestrial planets could have formed in giant impacts. However no general theory still exist. I
will show and illustrate current theories of satellite formation for Saturn, Jupiter, the Earth and Mars and show
that satellite formation strongly depends on the context of planet formation, and that studying them in situ may
provide unvaluable clues on the last phases of the assembling of planets.
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