How much jupiter moons

Montani, J. Scotti, T. Spahr, G. The four Galilean satellites of Jupiter were faint dots of light in astronomers' telescopes before the encounters of the Pioneer and Voyager spacecraft. Both missions provided more information on these satellites during a few brief hours of encounter than had been assembled in the years since their discovery.

They are shown here in their correct positions relative to Jupiter, but are not to scale. The largest moon in the solar system, Ganymede, is larger than the planet Mercury. If no button appears, you cannot download or save the media.

Text on this page is printable and can be used according to our Terms of Service. Any interactives on this page can only be played while you are visiting our website.

You cannot download interactives. A moon is an object that orbits a planet or something else that is not a star. How many planets are in the solar system?

How did it form in the Milky Way galaxy? Learn facts about the solar system's genesis, plus its planets, moons, and asteroids. Neptune is the most distant of the solar system's eight planets. Find out about the blue world's orbit, which of Neptune's moons is the largest, and how the planet is home to the most severe weather in the solar system. Cracks and streaks crisscross the entire icy surface, which is marked with very few craters.

Europa has a high degree of reflectivity, making it among the brightest moons in the solar system. At 20 to million years old, the surface is fairly young. It is possible that an extensive ocean beneath the surface harbors life. Ganymede is the third Galilean moon from Jupiter and the largest of the four.

This low-density moon is about the size of Mercury but has about half the mass. Its outstanding characteristic is that it is the only moon to have its own magnetic field. Forty percent of the surface of Ganymede is covered by highly cratered dark regions, and the remaining sixty percent is covered by a light grooved terrain, which forms intricate patterns across Ganymede. Callisto , the fourth and farthest of the Galilean moons from Jupiter, is the most heavily cratered object in the solar system.

It is about the size of Mercury but very low in density.