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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 Sun, planets, moons and dwarf planets (true color, size to scale, distances not to scale) The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the Solar System: Solar System – gravitationally bound system comprising the Sun and the objects that orbit it, either directly or indirectly. Of those objects that orbit the ...
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.
The Solar System also contains: Comets. List of periodic comets; List of near-parabolic comets; Small objects, including: Meteoroids; Interplanetary dust. Helium focusing cone, around the Sun; Human-made objects orbiting the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, and Saturn, including active artificial satellites and space junk
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 ...
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.
Planetary-mass moons larger than Pluto, the largest Solar dwarf planet. A planetary-mass moon is a planetary-mass object that is also a natural satellite. They are large and ellipsoidal (sometimes spherical) in shape. Moons may be in hydrostatic equilibrium due to tidal or radiogenic heating, in some cases forming a subsurface ocean.
Titan, at 5,149 km diameter, is the second largest moon in the Solar System and Saturn's largest. [ 68 ] [ 44 ] Out of all the large moons, Titan is the only one with a dense (surface pressure of 1.5 atm ), cold atmosphere, primarily made of nitrogen with a small fraction of methane . [ 69 ]