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Ganymede orbits Jupiter in roughly seven days and is in a 1:2:4 orbital resonance with the moons Europa and Io, respectively. Ganymede is composed of silicate rock and water in approximately equal proportions.
Rotation period days: 25.38 Orbital period about Galactic Center [4] million years 225–250 Mean orbital speed [4] km/s: ≈ 220 Axial tilt to the ecliptic: deg. 7.25 Axial tilt to the galactic plane: deg. 67.23 Mean surface temperature: K: 5,778 Mean coronal temperature [5] K: 1–2 × 10 6: Photospheric composition H, He, O, C, Fe, S
The largest, Ganymede, is the largest moon in the Solar System and surpasses the planet Mercury in size (though not mass). Callisto is only slightly smaller than Mercury in size; the smaller ones, Io and Europa, are about the size of the Moon. The three inner moons — Io, Europa, and Ganymede — are in a 4:2:1 orbital resonance with
In 1788, Pierre-Simon Laplace used Cassini's ephemerides and those produced by other astronomers in the preceding century to create a mathematical theory explaining the resonant orbits of Io, Europa, and Ganymede. The ratios of the orbital periods of the inner three Galilean moons are simple integers: Io orbits Jupiter twice every time Europa ...
2) pressure of only 1–1.5 standard atmospheres (15–22 psi) not only allows habitable temperatures, but allows liquid water on the dark side of the satellite. The temperature range of a moon that is tidally locked to a gas giant could be less extreme than with a planet locked to a star.
This energy gained by the object comes from its orbital energy and/or rotational energy, so over time in a two-body system, the initial elliptical orbit decays into a circular orbit (tidal circularization) and the rotational periods of the two bodies adjust towards matching the orbital period (tidal locking). Sustained tidal heating occurs when ...
The orbital period (also revolution period) is the amount of time a given astronomical object takes to complete one orbit around another object. In astronomy , it usually applies to planets or asteroids orbiting the Sun , moons orbiting planets, exoplanets orbiting other stars , or binary stars .
This suspicion is caused because of the unusually high level of water vapor in the thin atmosphere of Ganymede. The moon likely has several layers of ice and liquid water, and finally a liquid layer in contact with the mantle. The core, the likely cause of Ganymede's magnetic field, would have a temperature near 1600 K.