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Discovered in 1655 by the Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens, Titan was the first known moon of Saturn and the sixth known planetary satellite (after Earth's moon and the four Galilean moons of Jupiter). Titan orbits Saturn at 20 Saturn radii or 1,200,000 km above Saturn's apparent surface.
The seven largest natural satellites in the Solar System (those bigger than 2,500 km across) are Jupiter's Galilean moons (Ganymede, Callisto, Io, and Europa), Saturn's moon Titan, Earth's moon, and Neptune's captured natural satellite Triton. Triton, the smallest of these, has more mass than all smaller natural satellites together.
The sizes and masses of many of the moons of Jupiter and Saturn are fairly well known due to numerous observations and interactions of the Galileo and Cassini orbiters; however, many of the moons with a radius less than ~100 km, such as Jupiter's Himalia, have far less certain masses. [5]
Like Saturn's largest moon Titan, it is larger than the planet Mercury, but has somewhat less surface gravity than Mercury, Io, or the Moon due to its lower density compared to the three. [18] Ganymede orbits Jupiter in roughly seven days and is in a 1:2:4 orbital resonance with the moons Europa and Io, respectively.
Size of Jupiter compared to Earth and Earth's Moon. Jupiter is about ten times larger than Earth (11.209 R 🜨) and smaller than the Sun (0.102 76 R ☉). Jupiter's mass is 318 times that of Earth; [2] 2.5 times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined.
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As the below graph demonstrates, the maximum absolute magnitude (total inherent brightness, abbreviated H) of moons we have detected around planets occurs at H = 18 for Jupiter, H = 17 for Saturn, H = 14 for Uranus, and H = 12 for Neptune. Smaller moons may (and most likely do) exist around each of these planets, but are currently undetectable ...
Jupiter may be best known as the planetary titan of our solar system with a comparatively small red mark — that still dwarfs the entirety of Earth — and rows of striations going from pole to pole.