Largest And Heaviest Satellite In Solar System
It has a diameter of 5 268 km 3 273 mi making it 26 larger than the planet mercury by volume although it is only 45 as massive.
Largest and heaviest satellite in solar system. It is the ninth largest object in the solar system and the largest without a substantial atmosphere. The solar system s planets and its most likely dwarf planets are known to be orbited by at least 219 natural satellites or moons. Ganymede orbits around jupiter with a diameter of 5 262 kilometers. Between 1994 and 1998 the shuttle mir complex of docked spacecraft was the heaviest artificial object in orbit when docked growing heavier from its start as mir continued to be expanded.
Spacecraft may change mass over time such as by use of propellant. The heaviest artificial objects to reach space include space stations various upper stages and discarded space shuttle external tanks. If we limit ourselves to planetary satellites th. Ganymede ganymede is one of jupiter s 79 known satellites.
Several of the largest ones are in hydrostatic equilibrium and would therefore be considered dwarf planets or planets if they. 19 of them are large enough to be gravitationally rounded. Pluto haumea makemake and eris. A natural satellite or moon is in the most common usage an astronomical body that orbits a planet or minor planet or sometimes another small solar system body.
Jupiter is a satellite of our sun and has roughly 2 5 times the mass of all the other known solar system objects which could be considered as satellites put together so my answer would be jupiter. The solar system is the gravitationally bound system of the sun and the objects that orbit it either directly or indirectly. In the solar system there are six planetary satellite systems containing 205 known natural satellites. This is a partial list of solar system objects by size arranged in descending order of mean volumetric radius and divided into several size classes these lists can also be sorted according to an object s mass and for the largest objects volume density and surface gravity insofar as these values are available.
Ganymede is the largest of jupiter s 79 moons as well as by far the largest moon in the solar system. It is bigger in size than the smallest planet mercury and would have easily been classified as a planet if it was orbiting the sun. Of the objects that orbit the sun directly the largest are the eight planets with the remainder being smaller objects the dwarf planets and small solar system bodies of the objects that orbit the sun indirectly the moons two are larger than the smallest planet. The list of biggest natural satellite in the solar system is discussed along with the facts like average diameter kilometres orbits distance to earth orbital period radius and gravity.