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Its eight regular moons are grouped into the planet-sized Galilean moons and the far smaller Amalthea group. They were named after lovers of Zeus, the Greek equivalent of Jupiter. Among them is Ganymede, the largest and most massive moon in the Solar System. Its 87 known irregular moons are organized into two categories: prograde and retrograde.
The remaining objects of the Solar System (including the four terrestrial planets, the dwarf planets, moons, asteroids, and comets) together comprise less than 0.002% of the Solar System's total mass. [h] The Sun is composed of roughly 98% hydrogen and helium, [41] as are Jupiter and Saturn.
There are at least 19 natural satellites in the Solar System that are known to be massive enough to be close to hydrostatic equilibrium: seven of Saturn, five of Uranus, four of Jupiter, and one each of Earth, Neptune, and Pluto. Alan Stern calls these satellite planets, although the term major moon is more common.
Euler diagram showing the types of bodies orbiting the Sun. The following is a list of Solar System objects by orbit, ordered by increasing distance from the Sun. Most named objects in this list have a diameter of 500 km or more. The Sun, a spectral class G2V main-sequence star; The inner Solar System and the terrestrial planets. Mercury
Six planets, seven dwarf planets, and other bodies have orbiting natural satellites, which are commonly called 'moons'. The Solar System is constantly flooded by the Sun's charged particles, the solar wind, forming the heliosphere. Around 75–90 astronomical units from the Sun, the solar wind is halted, resulting in the heliopause.
In an almost poetic twist, the moon is also the most reflective body in the solar system—reflecting almost 100 percent of the light that reaches it. It is a beacon in more ways than one. 4.
Parts-per-million chart of the relative mass distribution of the Solar System, each cubelet denoting 2 × 10 24 kg. This article includes a list of the most massive known objects of the Solar System and partial lists of smaller objects by observed mean radius. These lists can be sorted according to an object's radius and mass and, for the most ...
Astronomers have discovered three previously unknown moons around Uranus and Neptune, the most distant planets in our solar system. The find includes one moon spotted orbiting Uranus — the first ...