| Exploring The Planets Our Solar System |
 159k GIF 46k JPEG Globes labeled, 72k JPG Smithsonian image, photo by T. McCrea |
Shown here in the Exploring The Planets gallery are models (1:50,000,000 scale) of 22 large bodies in the Solar System: the 9 planets and 13 large planetary satellites. To see the display with the name of each planet or moon indicated, click here. The planet Jupiter, whose diameter is more than 11 times that of Earth, is represented by a 3-meter (10-foot) sphere. The distances between the models and their location in the Solar System are not shown to scale. |
The following table gives the relative sizes of the planets and their largest satellites which are represented by the models in the gallery.
| The Planets and Their Largest Satellites: | ||||||||
| Diameter | Diameter | |||||||
| kilometers | miles | kilometers | miles | |||||
| Mercury | 4,878 | 3,031 | Saturn | 120,536 | 74,901 | |||
| Venus | 12,104 | 7,521 | Titan | 5,150 | 3,200 | |||
| Earth | 12,756 | 7,927 | Rhea | 1,528 | 949 | |||
| Moon | 3,476 | 2,160 | Iapetus | 1,436 | 892 | |||
| Mars | 6,794 | 4,222 | Dione | 1,120 | 696 | |||
| Jupiter | 142,980 | 88,848 | Tethys | 1,046 | 650 | |||
| Ganymede | 5,268 | 3,274 | Uranus | 51,118 | 31,765 | |||
| Callisto | 4,806 | 2,986 | Titania | 1,578 | 981 | |||
| Io | 3,630 | 2,256 | Neptune | 50,538 | 31,404 | |||
| Europa | 3,130 | 1,945 | Triton | 2,700 | 1,678 | |||
| Pluto | 2,320 | 1,440 | ||||||
| Charon | 1,270 | 790 | ||||||
For a more detailed description and data for the nine planets
of our Solar System and all of their satellites,
see the individual planet pages:
Mercury || Venus || Earth || Mars || Jupiter || Saturn || Uranus || Neptune || Pluto/Charon
or
Planetary Physical Data (large
table)
Planetary Satellites Physical Data (no tables)
©2002 National Air and Space Museum
