CELESTIAL BODIES
Discover some of the many dwarf planets and moons orbiting in our Solar System
Makemake
Found around
4.2 billion miles from the Sun, just outside the orbit of Neptune, this dwarf planet is the second-brightest object in the Kuiper Belt – the first being Pluto. Its discovery in 2005 prompted the International Astronomical
Union to form a new classification of celestial bodies, called dwarf planets.
Haumea
Haumea sits in the
Kuiper
Belt and is one of the fastest rotating large objects in the Solar System. A single day on Haumea is equivalent to four hours on Earth, but due to its proximity to the Sun, one Haumean year is equal to 285 Earth years. This ovalshaped dwarf plane has two moons: Namaka and Hi’iaka.
Io
Io is one of the most volcanically active bodies in the Solar System. There are hundreds of volcanoes on the moon’s surface, each of them spewing lava dozens of miles high, along with lakes of molten silicate. It’s thought that Jupiter’s intense gravitational pull is the reason for Io’s explosive nature.
Callisto
Callisto has a circumference of 9,410 miles, which is almost as big as Mercury. Not only is this moon impressively large, it has a salty secret deep below its icy surface. Discovered in 1610, it wasn’t until the 1990s that scientists proposed the moon has a subsurface ocean about 155 miles below its surface.
Europa
Another of Jupiter’s many moons, Europa is one of the oddest. With a surface temperature of around -160 degrees Celsius, this frozen satellite bears strange streaks. These markings are thought to be cracks in the moon’s icy surface, caused by the tidal forces of an ocean deep beneath it.
Titan
Although the structure of Titan remains unclear, scientists think its core is made of rock around 2,500 miles in diameter, surrounded by water ice. This satellite has a dense atmosphere, which gives it its yellow hue. The composition of this atmosphere is primarily nitrogen and some methane.
Mimas
Often called the Death
Star moon for its similarity to the space station in Star Wars, Mimas is one of Saturn’s smallest moons. Its iconic impact crater, named Herschel after English astronomer William Herschel, who discovered Mimas in 1789, spans 80 miles and reaches 3.5 miles high at its peak.
Hyperion
Not all moons are spherical.
Some, like Saturn’s sponge-like moon Hyperion, are irregular and filled with deep caverns. With a lower density than water, this moon is made up of water ice and frozen methane or carbon dioxide. Hyperion’s appearance is thought to be the result of its distance from Saturn.