Scale comparisons of the solar system's major moons

Written by
Emily Lakdawalla
July 10, 2013
Here's a presentation slide I've been meaning to put together for a while. It shows the major moons of the eight planets, to scale with each other. Below is a labeled version. You can download one without text here, and if you scroll down I've got a couple of alternative layouts.
Note: it's been pointed out to me that the Callisto image is from Voyager, not Galileo. I'll fix the text on the image eventually. --ESL

Here are some alternative unlabeled versions:


For the next one, I used a different Iapetus image, because it's adjacent to the Uranian moons Oberon and Ariel for which we don't have good lower-phase (fuller) global views; putting in the higher-phase one I used above made it look too big. Ganymede looks a little small for the same reason, and also because Titan's atmosphere makes it look bigger than it actually is.

Take a Stand for Our Future in Space
Take action for space exploration! Give today to have your gift matched up to $75,000.
Donate