LARGEST ROCKY WORLDS IN SOLAR SYSTEM TO SCALE.xlsx

	B	C	G	K	O
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2	LARGEST ROCKY WORLDS IN SOLAR SYSTEM TO SCALE
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4	Terrestrial Planets, Moons & Dwarf Planets (recognized and proposed) with diameter over 800 km
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6	AUTHOR: Mateusz Szymański, www.szymanskimateusz.pl
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8	Sources: wikipedia.org, solarsystem.nasa.gov, space-facts.com, livescience.com, solarviews.com, nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov, britannica.com, planetary.org
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10		EARTH	Informations	Size comparison to the Moon	Interesting facts
11			Type: Planet Name: English word eor(th)e/ertha & German word erde - ground Diameter: 12742 km Mass: 5.97237×10²⁴ kg Orbital period: 1 yr Rotation period: 1 d Semi-major axis: 1 AU Known satellites: 1		• Due to the existence of equatorial bulge, summit of Earth's highest mountain by elevation above sea level (Mount Everest - 8848 m) isn't the farthest point on the Earth's surface from its center. In fact this point is the summit of Mount Chimborazo in Ecuador (6263 m). • Earth is the only planet that wasn't named after a Greek or Roman god or goddess. • Earth is the densest planet in the Solar System and the largest and most massive of the rocky planets.
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13		Photo: EUMESAT
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15		VENUS	Informations	Size comparison to Earth and the Moon	Interesting facts
16			Type: Planet Name: Roman goddess of love and beauty Diameter: 12104 km (0.95 Earth) Mass: 0.815 Earth Orbital period: 224.7 d Rotation period: 243 d Semi-major axis: 0.72 AU Known satellites: 0		• Venus has the longest rotation period of any planet in the Solar System. • Venus sidereal day is longer than its year (243 days vs. 225 days) and its solar day (117 days) is about half of its year. • It rotates in the opposite direction to most other planets (retrograde rotation). • Thanks to its size and mass Venus is often called the Earth’s sister planet. • It is the fourth brightest object in the sky (after Sun, Moon and ISS). • The surface temperature on Venus can reach 471°C (it is the hottest planet in the Solar System).
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18		Photo: NASA / JPL
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20		MARS	Informations	Size comparison to Earth and the Moon	Interesting facts
21			Type: Planet Name: Roman god of war and an agricultural guardian Diameter: 6779 km (0.532 Earth) Mass: 0.107 Earth Orbital period: 1.88 yr Rotation period: 1.026 d Semi-major axis: 1.524 AU Known satellites: 2		• Martian surface gravity is only 37% of the Earth’s. • Mars and Earth have approximately the same landmass. • Mars has the largest dust storms in the Solar System. They can last for months and cover the entire planet. • On Mars the Sun appears about half the size as it does on Earth. • In 20-40 milion years Mars may crush its moon Phobos and form a ring of rocky debris.
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23		Photo: NASA / JPL-CALTECH
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25		GANYMEDE	Informations	Size comparison to Earth and the Moon	Interesting facts
26			Type: Moon of Jupiter Year discovered: 1610 Name: Greek divine hero whose homeland was Troy Diameter: 5268 km (0.413 Earth) Mass: 0.0248 Earth Orbital period (Jupiter): 11.862 yr Rotation period: 7.15 d (synchronous) Semi-major axis (Jupiter): 5.2 AU		• Ganymede is the largest moon in the Solar System, and is larger than the planet Mercury. • Due to possessing a metallic core, Ganymede is the only moon in the Solar System known to have a substantial magnetosphere. • Ganymede is thought to have a subsurface ocean that may contain more water than all of Earth's oceans combined. • The satellite has a thin oxygen atmosphere that includes O, O₂, and possibly O₃ (ozone).
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28		Photo: NASA / JPL / DLR
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30		TITAN	Informations	Size comparison to Earth and the Moon	Interesting facts
31			Type: Moon of Saturn Year discovered: 1655 Name: Greek Titans Diameter: 5149 km (0.404 Earth) Mass: 0.0225 Earth Orbital period (Saturn): 29.46 yr Rotation period: 15.92 d (synchronous) Semi-major axis (Saturn): 9.585 AU		• Titan is second largest natural satellite in the Solar System, and is larger than the planet Mercury. • Titan’s most obvious feature is its heavy, hazy atmosphere. The most abundant gas is nitrogen, with methane and ethane clouds and a thick organic smog. • Its surface has liquid hydrocarbon lakes and the vents of cryovolcanoes. • The composition of Titan is known to be water ice over a rocky interior. • Titan's methane cycle is analogous to Earth's water cycle.
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33		Photo: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute
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35		MERCURY	Informations	Size comparison to Earth and the Moon	Interesting facts
36			Type: Planet Name: Roman god of financial gain, commerce, eloquence, messages, communication, travelers, boundaries, luck, trickery and thieves Diameter: 4879 km (0.383 Earth) Mass: 0.05527 Earth Orbital period: 87.97 d Rotation period: 58.65 d Semi-major axis: 0.387 AU Known satellites: 0		• A year on Mercury is just 88 days long. • One solar day on Mercury lasts 176 days while the sidereal day lasts 59 days. • An observer on Mercury would see only one day every two years. • Mercury is the smallest but also second densest planet in the Solar System. • Mercury has a molten core. • It is only the second hottest planet in the Solar System (despite being closer to the Sun than Venus). • Mercury is the most cratered planet in the Solar System.
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38		Photo: NASA / JHUAPL / Carnegie Institution of Washington
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40		CALLISTO	Informations	Size comparison to Earth and the Moon	Interesting facts
41			Type: Moon of Jupiter Year discovered: 1610 Name: in Greek mythology was a nymph, or the daughter of King Lycaon Diameter: 4821 km (0.378 Earth) Mass: 0.018 Earth Orbital period (Jupiter): 11.862 yr Rotation period: 16.7 d (synchronous) Semi-major axis (Jupiter): 5.2 AU		• Callisto is a half-rocky, half-icy world. • Callisto has the most heavily cratered surface of any world in the Solar System. • It is a layered world, with a rigid outer surface and an interior ocean likely made of water mixed with salts or ammonia. • There is a thin atmosphere at Callisto made mostly of carbon dioxide. • The most prominent feature on Callisto is a multi-ringed impact basin called Valhalla. It stretches across more than 1800 kilometers and was created during a giant impact event 2-4 billion years ago.
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43		Photo: NASA / JPL / DLR
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45		IO	Informations	Size comparison to Earth and the Moon	Interesting facts
46			Type: Moon of Jupiter Year discovered: 1610 Name: in Greek mythology one of the mortal lovers of Zeus, an Argive princess Diameter: 3643 km (0.286 Earth) Mass: 0.01495 Earth Orbital period (Jupiter): 11.862 yr Rotation period: 1.8 d (synchronous) Semi-major axis (Jupiter): 5.2 AU		• Io has more than 400 active volcanoes on its surface. They make this little moon the most actively volcanic world in the Solar System. • The volcanism on Io is due to tidal heating, as the moon is stretched by Jupiter’s strong gravitational pull. • The volcanoes of Io are constantly erupting, creating plumes that rise above the surface and lakes that cover vast areas of the landscape. • Io has a very thin atmosphere that contains mostly sulfur dioxide.
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48		Photo: NASA / JPL / University of Arizona
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50		LUNA	Informations	Size comparison to Earth	Interesting facts
51			Type: Moon of Earth Name: Roman goddess of the Moon, Latin word lūna - the Moon Diameter: 3475 km (0.273 Earth) Mass: 0.0123 Earth Orbital period (Earth): 1 yr Rotation period: 27.3 d (synchronous) Semi-major axis (Earth): 1 AU		• The Moon is drifting away from the Earth (approximately 3.8 cm every year). • It has quakes caused by the gravitational pull of the Earth. • The dark and relatively featureless lunar plains, clearly seen with the naked eye, are called maria (Latin for seas), as they were once believed to be filled with water; they are now known to be vast solidified pools of ancient basaltic lava. • The Moon rotates around on its own axis in exactly the same time it takes to orbit the Earth, meaning the same side is always facing the Earth.
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53		Photo: Gregory H. Revera
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55		EUROPA	Informations	Size comparison to Earth and the Moon	Interesting facts
56			Type: Moon of Jupiter Year discovered: 1610 Name: in Greek mythology was the consort of Zeus, mother of King Minos of Crete, a Phoenician princess Diameter: 3122 km (0.245 Earth) Mass: 0.008035 Earth Orbital period (Jupiter): 11.862 yr Rotation period: 3.5 d (synchronous) Semi-major axis (Jupiter): 5.2 AU		• Europa has a water ocean underneath its cracked surface. The predominant model suggests that heat from tidal flexing causes the ocean to remain liquid and drives ice movement similar to plate tectonics, absorbing chemicals from the surface into the ocean below. • There is a magnetic field at Europa, induced through interaction with Jupiter’s massive magnetic field. • Europa has the smoothest surface of any known solid object in the Solar System.
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58		Photo: NASA / JPL / DLR
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60		TRITON	Informations	Size comparison to Earth and the Moon	Interesting facts
61			Type: Moon of Neptune Year discovered: 1846 Name: Greek god of the sea, the son of Poseidon and Amphitrite Diameter: 2707 km (0.212 Earth) Mass: 0.003581 Earth Orbital period (Neptune): 164.8 yr Rotation period: 5.88 d (synchronous) Semi-major axis (Neptune): 30.07 AU		• Triton orbits Neptune in retrograde. This may imply that it was captured by Neptune’s gravity into its inclined orbit. • It will wander too close to Neptune in its orbit in about 3.5 billion years, and the gravitational pull will break Triton up. • Triton could be divided into layers of ice around a rocky core. The crust is largely water ice. There could be subsurface ocean of slushy or liquid water. • Triton has a very thin nitrogen atmosphere (as a result of geysers spewing nitrogen gas out from beneath the surface into long plumes).
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63		Photo: NASA / JPL / A. Tayfun Oner
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65		PLUTO	Informations	Size comparison to Earth and the Moon	Interesting facts
66			Type: Dwarf Planet Year discovered: 1930 Earliest precovery: 1909 Name: ruler of the underworld in classical mythology (later name for Hades) Diameter: 2377 km (0.187 Earth) Mass: 0.002177 Earth Orbital period: 247.94 yr Rotation period: 6.4 d Semi-major axis: 39.482 AU Known satellites: 5		• Pluto was reclassified from a planet to a dwarf planet in 2006. • Pluto and its moon Charon are sometimes considered a binary system because the barycenter of their orbits does not lie within either body. • It is the largest dwarf planet. • Pluto is one third water (in the form of water ice which is more than 3 times as much water as in all the Earth’s oceans). • Pluto is periodically closer to the Sun than Neptune.
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68		Photo: NASA / JHUAPL / SWRI
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70		ERIS	Informations	Size comparison to Earth and the Moon	Interesting facts
71			Type: Dwarf Planet Year discovered: 2005 Earliest precovery: 1954 Name: Greek goddess of strife and discord Diameter: 2326 km (0.183 Earth) Mass: 0.002779 Earth Orbital period: 559.07 yr Rotation period: 25.9 h Semi-major axis: 67.864 AU Known satellites: 1		• Eris was once considered for the position of tenth planet. • Eris is unquestionably the most massive of the known dwarf planets and was once thought to be the largest due to its relative brightness. • At its furthest point from the Sun Eris is so distant it is outside the Kuiper Belt, however at its closet point it is closer the Sun than Pluto’s most distant point. • For a time Eris became known as Xena, which was an informal name used internally by the discovery team, inspired by tv series Xena: Warrior Princess.
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73		Graphic: ESO / L. Calçada / Nick Risinger
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75		TITANIA	Informations	Size comparison to Earth and the Moon	Interesting facts
76			Type: Moon of Uranus Year discovered: 1787 Name: queen of the fairies in William Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream Diameter: 1577 km (0.124 Earth) Mass: 0.000569 Earth Orbital period (Uranus): 84.021 yr Rotation period: 8.7 d (synchronous) Semi-major axis (Uranus): 19.218 AU		• Infrared spectroscopy revealed the presence of water ice as well as frozen carbon dioxide on the surface of Titania, which in turn suggested that the moon may have a tenuous carbon dioxide atmosphere. • Titania consists of approximately equal amounts of ice and rock, and is probably differentiated into a rocky core and an icy mantle. A layer of liquid water may be present at the core–mantle boundary. • Titania's orbit lies completely inside the Uranian magnetosphere.
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78		Photo: NASA / JPL
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80		HAUMEA	Informations	Size comparison to Earth and the Moon	Interesting facts
81			Type: Dwarf Planet Year discovered: 2004 Earliest precovery: 1955 Name: Hawaiian goddess of fertility and childbirth Diameter: ~1560 km (0.122 Earth) Mass: 0.000671 Earth Orbital period: 283.12 yr Rotation period: 3.9 h Semi-major axis: 43.116 AU Known satellites: 2		• Haumea rotates so quickly that it is distorted into a triaxial ellipsoid. • It rotates faster than any other known equilibrium body in the Solar System, and faster than any other known body larger than 100 km in diameter. • In 2009 a dark red spot was discovered on Haumea. It’s thought it could be an area with a higher concentration of minerals and carbon rich compounds than the rest of the icy surface. • A stellar occultation observed indicated the presence of a ring around Haumea.
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83		Graphic: NASA / ESA / A. Feild (STScI)
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85		RHEA	Informations	Size comparison to Earth and the Moon	Interesting facts
86			Type: Moon of Saturn Year discovered: 1672 Name: Greek goddess, Titaness daughter of Uranus and Gaia Diameter: 1528 km (0.12 Earth) Mass: 0.000386 Earth Orbital period (Saturn): 29.46 yr Rotation period: 4.5 d (synchronous) Semi-major axis (Saturn): 9.585 AU		• Rhea's density suggests that it's three quarters ice and one quarter rock - a frozen dirty snowball. • The Cassini spacecraft detected a very thin atmosphere known as an exosphere, infused with oxygen and carbon dioxide. • A broad debris disk and at least one ring appear to have been detected around Rhea. • Models suggest that Rhea could be capable of sustaining an internal liquid-water ocean through heating by radioactive decay.
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88		Photo: NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute
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90		OBERON	Informations	Size comparison to Earth and the Moon	Interesting facts
91			Type: Moon of Uranus Year discovered: 1787 Name: king of the fairies in medieval and Renaissance literature Diameter: 1523 km (0.12 Earth) Mass: 0.000515 Earth Orbital period (Uranus): 84.021 yr Rotation period: 13.5 d (synchronous) Semi-major axis (Uranus): 19.218 AU		• Oberon has at least one large mountain that rises about 6 km off the surface. • The moon consists of approximately equal amounts of ice and rock, and is probably differentiated into a rocky core and an icy mantle. • The nature of the dark patches, which mainly occur on the leading hemisphere and inside craters, is not known. Some scientists hypothesized that they are of cryovolcanic origin.
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93		Photo: NASA / JPL
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95		IAPETUS	Informations	Size comparison to Earth and the Moon	Interesting facts
96			Type: Moon of Saturn Year discovered: 1671 Name: Greek Titan, the son of Uranus and Gaia Diameter: 1469 km (0.115 Earth) Mass: 0.0003 Earth Orbital period (Saturn): 29.46 yr Rotation period: 79.32 d (synchronous) Semi-major axis (Saturn): 9.585 AU		• The low density of Iapetus indicates that it is mostly composed of ice, with only a small (~20%) amount of rocky materials. • Peaks in the Equatorial ridge on Iapetus rise more than 20 km above the surrounding plains, making them some of the tallest mountains in the Solar System. It is not clear how the ridge formed. • Iapetus has a bright and a dark hemisphere (darkening comes from organic materials).
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98		Photo: NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute
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100		MAKEMAKE	Informations	Size comparison to Earth and the Moon	Interesting facts