Largest Natural Satellite In The Solar System

Titan is the sixth gravitationally rounded moon from saturn frequently described as a planet like moon titan is 50.

Largest natural satellite in the solar system.

In the solar system there are six planetary satellite systems containing 205 known natural satellites. The moon s distance from earth is about 240 000 miles 385 000km. The moon s presence helps stabilize our planet s wobble which helps stabilize our climate. 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.

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. It is the ninth largest object in the solar system and the largest without a substantial atmosphere. The moon has a very thin atmosphere called an exosphere. The moon is earth s only natural satellite and the fifth largest moon in the solar system.

Ganymede orbits around jupiter with a diameter of 5 262 kilometers. Several of the largest ones are in hydrostatic equilibrium and would therefore be considered dwarf planets or planets if they. Titan is the largest moon of saturn and the second largest natural satellite in the solar system it is the only moon known to have a dense atmosphere and the only known body in space other than earth where clear evidence of stable bodies of surface liquid has been found. Four iau listed dwarf planets are also known to have natural satellites.

Of these all are covered by a crust of ice except for earth s moon and io. The solar system s planets and its most likely dwarf planets are known to be orbited by at least 219 natural satellites or moons. 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.

19 of them are large enough to be gravitationally rounded.