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Ganymede, or Jupiter III, is the largest and most massive natural satellite of Jupiter, and in the Solar System. Despite being the only moon in the Solar System with a substantial magnetic field , it is the largest Solar System object without a substantial atmosphere.
It was referred to as "Jupiter I", or "The first satellite of Jupiter" until the mid-20th century. [14] With over 400 active volcanos, Io is the most geologically active object in the Solar System. [25] Its surface is dotted with more than 100 mountains, some of which are taller than Earth's Mount Everest. [26]
A montage of Jupiter and its four largest moons (distance and sizes not to scale) There are 95 moons of Jupiter with confirmed orbits as of 5 February 2024. [1] [note 1] This number does not include a number of meter-sized moonlets thought to be shed from the inner moons, nor hundreds of possible kilometer-sized outer irregular moons that were only briefly captured by telescopes. [4]
Of the Solar System's eight planets and its nine most likely dwarf planets, six planets and seven dwarf planets are known to be orbited by at least 300 natural satellites, or moons. At least 19 of them are large enough to be gravitationally rounded; of these, all are covered by a crust of ice except for Earth's Moon and Jupiter's Io . [ 1 ]
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]
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.
Jupiter has 95 known natural satellites, [198] and it is likely that this number would go up due to improved instrumentation. [199] Of these, 79 are less than 10 km in diameter. [ 7 ] The four largest moons, known as the Galilean moons , are Ganymede, Callisto, Io, and Europa (in order of decreasing size), and are visible from Earth with ...
Most of the remaining inner satellites were discovered by spacecraft Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 during their flybys of Jupiter (1979), Saturn (1980), Uranus (1986) and Neptune (1989). In more recent years, further inner satellites have been found orbiting Saturn by the Cassini spacecraft from 2005 to 2009, and orbiting Uranus (2003) and Neptune ...