Mass scale shifts from 1015 to 109kg, which is equivalent to one billionkg or 1012 grams (Teragram Tg). The model indicated the icy moons rocky sea bottom might be in contact with salt water. Pluto is the 8th largest non-Planet in our Solar System; Charon ranks at number 17. Its atmosphere is almost non-existent:100 billion times thinner than Earths, made almost exclusively of oxygen and hydrogen compounds arising from vaporized ices. If the Moon were to disappear, it would take us 1.29 seconds to realize this. NASA's Juno spacecraft captured sounds of Jupiter's moon Ganymede during a June 7, 2021, close flyby. Is the Moon bigger than Mercury? The second-largest moon in the solar system is Saturns largest moon, Titan. NASAs Juno spacecraft took the most recent images of Ganymedes surface during flybys in June 2021. There can be difficulty in determining the diameter (within a factor of about 2) for typical objects beyond Saturn. The table switches from 1018kg to 1015kg (Eg). It is the most heavily cratered world known in the Solar System, thought to have the oldest surface of all. The four rocky planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars) and the four gas giant worlds (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune) are the only ones that can be called planets under these definitions. [10], This list contains a selection of objects estimated to be between 100 and 199km in radius (200 and 399km in diameter). Mercury has a diameter of 4,880 km - so it is indeed almost 10% smaller than Ganymede. The sea of tranquility (Mare Tranquillitas) was the site of Apollo 11s landing. This is a common size for asteroids, comets and irregular moons. NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University, annotations by Stardate / The University of Texas McDonald Observatory. Winds in the outermost "lane" of Jupiter's Great Red Spot are accelerating a discovery made possible by Hubble. NASAs Hubble Space Telescope has completed this year's grand tour of the outer solar system. The following objects have a mean radius of at least400 km. The lunar probe reached the Moon in 1 year, one month, and two weeks. Two of them are larger than Mercury; seven are larger than Pluto and Eris. With a diameter of 5,268 km (3,271 miles), its 8% bigger than the planet Mercury, although it has less than half the mass of our Solar Systems innermost planet, being made of mostly ices and silicate minerals. Smaller and less massive by far than Triton, and less than half the diameter of Mercury, the Plutonian system is the first one in the Kuiper belt to be imaged from up close. Relative masses of the rounded moons of the Solar System. From t. With its diameter of 3,273 mi / 5,268 km, it is quite a bit larger than Mercury. The Galileo spacecraft, the first to orbit Jupiter, made the major discovery that Ganymede has its own magnetosphere a region of charged particles that surrounds many planets but had never before been found around a moon. Unfortunately, the surface of Titan is hidden beneath its dense atmosphere of hydrocarbons. The listed objects currently include most objects in the asteroid belt and moons of the giant planets in this size range, but many newly discovered objects in the outer Solar System are missing, such as those included in the following reference. However, appearances can be deceiving. Solar System objects more massive than 1021 kilograms are known or expected to be approximately spherical. Although Galileo discovered Io over 400 years ago, virtually everything about Io was a mystery until the Voyager flybys in the late 1970s. The rover will be delivered to the Moon's surface in late 2023. The solar system has no shortage of moons. VIPER is the first resource-mapping mission on the surface of another celestial body. Ganymede is the only moon known to have its own magnetic field something typically found on planets like Earth. It has water-ice on its poles down to about 40 latitude, and a thin atmosphere of oxygen and hydrogen atoms, likely made from the vaporized ices. Scientists think water and rock interacting are key for the development of life. Triton: Neptunes largest moon was once the Solar Systems largest Kuiper belt object, butwas gravitationally captured a long time ago. Scientists think that understanding Jupiter will provide critical knowledge about our solar system, and the planetary systems being discovered around other stars. This page showcases our resources for those interested in learning more about ocean worlds. The main differences between the Moon and Mercury is that the moon is a natural satellite that orbits another planet whilst Mercury is a terrestrial planet that only orbits the Sun, Mercury is the bigger of the two with a diameter of 4,879km compared to the Moon's 3,474.8km and Mercury is naturally hotter considering it is the closest planet to the Sun averaging 167C whereas the Moon's . Data from NASA / JPL, JHUAPL/SwRI, SSI, and UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA, processed by Gordan Ugarkovic, Ted Stryk, Bjorn Jonsson, Roman Tkachenko, and Emily Lakdawalla. This page showcases our resources for those interested in learning more about Jupiter. Relative masses of the Solar planets. The size of solid bodies does not include an object's atmosphere. The surface of the moon features extensive plains and catering. Ganymede has a solid surface made of ice mixed with rock. Marsset et al. If many of these moons were situated in different locations, astronomers would define them as planets. The last two of the biggest moons in our Solar System are Earths Moon and Neptunes moon Triton. The surface is the very top of the ice shell. However, the orbital paths of nearby moons didnt match up with the image. Distance from Sun Ganymede is about 665,000 miles (1.07 million kilometers) from Jupiter, which orbits about 484 million miles (778 million kilometers) from the Sun. ", "JPL Small-Body Database Browser: 2685 Masursky (1981 JN)", "JPL Small-Body Database Browser: 1509 Esclangona (1938 YG)", "JPL Small-Body Database Browser: 9P/Tempel 1", "Arecibo Radar Returns with Asteroid Phaethon Images", "Hubble Space Telescope STIS Observations of Comet 19P/BORRELLY during the Deep Space 1 Encounter", "JPL Small-Body Database Browser: 5535 Annefrank (1942 EM)", "JPL Small-Body Database Browser: 3749 Balam (1982 BG1)", "(3749) Balam, S/2002 (3749) 1, and third component", "Saturn's Mysterious Arc-Embedded Moons: Recycled Fluff? It's mass is 0.055 Earths - which is more than twice that of Ganymede! Ganymede Ganymede is the largest known moon in our Solar System. Ganymede is tidally locked, meaning that like Earths Moon, the same side of Ganymede always faces Jupiter. The most distant of the four Galilean moons around Jupiter, Callisto receives very little tidal heating at this great distance, and isnt locked into the same resonant orbits as Io, Europa, and Ganymede. Jupiter at 71% of the total and Saturn at 21% dominate the system. The Luna 1 probe traveled at around 10,500 km/hr, and it reached the Moon in just 36 hours. During its 36th low pass over Jupiter, NASAs Juno spacecraft captured this view of striking Jupiter's cloud bands and swirls. (Jupiter now has 53 named moons and 26 provisional moons awaiting confirmation of discovery). 9.) Note the relationship between density and distance from the Sun, the similarity of Triton to Pluto, and how even the satellites of Jupiter, from Io to Callisto, vary in density so tremendously. Images taken by NASAs Juno spacecraft on June 7, 2021, provided a fresh look at features on Ganymedes surface including craters, clearly distinct dark, and bright terrain, and long structural features possibly linked to tectonic faults. (Jupiters moon Europa may have an even bigger global ocean with twice as much liquid water as Earths ocean.). Design & Development: Others are so small that they are more closely related to asteroids and meteors than the planets. Thus the Moon is smaller in diameter than the United States, however. What is the best estimate of the capacity of a juice box? Titania: Only by going all the way down to the tenth largest non-planet in the Solar System can we finally arrive at one of Uranus moons, of which Titania is the largest. This makes Ganymede even larger than the planet Mercury, which has a diameter of 3,032 miles (4,879 kilometers). NASA-funded scientists have discovered shaded locations within pits on the Moon that always hover around a comfortable 63 F. On April 9, 2022, the JunoCam instrument captured what it would look like to ride along with the Juno spacecraft. It even rains liquid methane on the surface. The eight planets of our Solar System and our Sun. It has the lowest density and surface gravity of any of the Galilean satellites. Huygens gave scientists their first good look at the surface, revealing a world that looked more like the Earth than a typical moon. The maria or seas of the Moons surface. [55] Asteroid spectral types are mostly Tholen, but some might be SMASS. In the asteroid belt alone there are estimated to be between 1.1 and 1.9million objects with a radius above 0.5km,[239] many of which are in the range 0.51.0km. Both Ganymede and Titan are bigger than Mercury; Ganymede's actually the biggest but Titan appears bigger because of its puffy atmosphere. Phil Davis JPL's lucky peanuts are an unofficial tradition at big mission events. Ganymede is the largest moon in our solar system. The Next Full Moon is the Harvest Moon, the Fruit Moon, the Barley Moon, and the Corn Moon. The Solar System's Major Moons The Solar System contains 18 or 19 natural satellites of planets that are large enough for self-gravity to make them round. There is both water ice and carbon dioxide ice on the surface of Titania, which may indicate a very thin, tenuous carbon dioxide atmosphere. Although its tidally locked to Jupiter, with the same face always facing its jovian parent, its surface appears to be extremely old. Similar to Ganymede, Europa has a very thin atmosphere made mostly of oxygen, due to the sublimation of the volatile ices on its surface. If the idea that there is a large object some ~200 AU away, provisionally called either Planet Nine or Planet X turns out to be correct, it may knock everything on this list down a peg, or may even be classified as a planet itself. Io is one of the four Galilean moons of Jupiter discovered by Galileo in 1610. Orbit the Sun in an ellipse and no other smaller, parent body. Ganymede was one of the first planets to be discovered in our solar system. is gigantic, and if it were hollow, you could fill it with around 64.3 million Earth moons. Ganymede is the largest moon of Jupiter, it is bigger than mercury and also Pluto. It might even have ice and oceans stacked up in several layers like a club sandwich. 3.) Number of digits not an endorsement of significant figures. On average, it would take you around three days to get to the Moon. Its average orbital distance is 58 million kilometers from the sun and it only has a. Ganymede completes an orbit around Jupiter about every seven Earth days (7.155). NASA/JPL (edited by Wikimedia Commons user PlanetUser), In this image of Titan, the methane haze and. once the Solar Systems largest Kuiper belt object. Mercury does NOT have any moons. [10] For simplicity and comparative purposes, the values are manually calculated assuming that the bodies are all spheres. *Janet Amid is a columnist & radio/media personality and can be heard Monday mornings 8:10 AM to 8:20 AM with Denny, Suzi, and Paul on 93.5 FM. It is the moon orbiting Jupiter. Io is the innermost moon of Jupiter and has a diameter of 2,264 miles (3,643 kilometers). It includes activities that can be done at home as well as videos, animations, stories, and articles. Astronomically, bodies within the Solar System must achieve three criteria in order to gain the much-vaunted status of planet: In our Solar System, only eight worlds make the cut given those criteria. 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moons bigger than mercury