Solar System
86 bodies
Mercury
Terrestrial rocky planet closest to the Sun. Surface temperatures swing from -180C at nigh...
Venus
The hottest planet at 465C due to runaway greenhouse effect. Rotates backwards compared to...
Earth
The only known planet with confirmed life. 71 percent covered in water. The magnetic field...
Mars
The Red Planet due to iron oxide on its surface. Olympus Mons is the tallest volcano in th...
Jupiter
The largest planet, 1,321 Earths could fit inside. The Great Red Spot is a storm larger th...
Saturn
Famous for its spectacular ring system made of ice and rock. The rings span 282,000 km but...
Uranus
Rotates on its side with an axial tilt of 98 degrees, likely from a massive ancient collis...
Neptune
The windiest planet with speeds reaching 2,100 km per hour. The most distant planet from t...
Pluto
Reclassified from planet to dwarf planet in 2006 by the IAU. Has a heart-shaped nitrogen g...
Ganymede
The largest moon in the solar system, larger than Mercury. The only moon with its own magn...
Titan
The only moon with a dense atmosphere, 50 percent thicker than Earths. Surface temperature...
Europa
Has a global ocean beneath an ice shell containing twice the water of all Earths oceans co...
Callisto
The most heavily cratered object in the solar system. Surface has not changed significantl...
Io
The most volcanically active body in the solar system. Over 400 active volcanoes. Surface ...
Triton
The only large moon that orbits in the opposite direction of its planets rotation. Has act...
Moon
The fifth largest moon in the solar system. Tidally locked, always showing the same face t...
Enceladus
Has geysers erupting water ice from its south pole, suggesting a global ocean beneath the ...
Mimas
Has a massive crater called Herschel that is 130 km across, nearly one-third of the moon d...
Oberon
The second largest and outermost of the five major moons of Uranus. Discovered by William ...
Titania
The largest moon of Uranus. Has enormous canyons and scarps up to 1,500 km long. Surface i...
Charon
So large relative to Pluto that the two orbit a common center of gravity between them. Has...
Phobos
The larger of Mars two moons. Orbital period of 7 hours 39 minutes is faster than Mars rot...
Deimos
The smaller and outermost moon of Mars. More smooth and regular in shape than Phobos. Esca...
Sun
A G-type main-sequence star containing 99.86 percent of the solar systems mass. Surface te...
Halley Comet
The most famous comet, visible from Earth every 75 to 79 years. Last appeared in 1986, nex...
Amalthea
The largest of the inner moons of Jupiter and one of the reddest objects in the solar syst...
Himalia
The largest of the irregular moons of Jupiter and namesake of the Himalia group. Discovere...
Elara
The second largest member of the Himalia group of irregular moons of Jupiter. Discovered b...
Pasiphae
The largest member of the retrograde Pasiphae group. Orbits Jupiter backwards, indicating ...
Sinope
A distant retrograde moon of Jupiter. For decades it held the record as the farthest confi...
Lysithea
A prograde irregular moon of Jupiter belonging to the Himalia group. Discovered by Seth Ba...
Carme
The largest member of the retrograde Carme group. Discovered by Seth Barnes Nicholson in 1...
Ananke
The namesake of the retrograde Ananke group of moons of Jupiter. Discovered by Seth Barnes...
Thebe
The second largest of the inner regular moons of Jupiter. Discovered in Voyager 1 images i...
Metis
The innermost known moon of Jupiter. Orbits within the main ring and helps feed it with de...
Adrastea
The smallest of the four inner moons of Jupiter. The first moon in history discovered by a...
Themisto
A small prograde moon orbiting between the Galilean moons and the Himalia group. First obs...
Leda
The smallest of the Himalia group moons of Jupiter. Discovered by Charles Kowal in 1974 at...
Rhea
The second largest moon of Saturn, made of about 75 percent water ice and 25 percent rock....
Iapetus
The two-toned moon of Saturn, with one hemisphere as dark as coal and the other as bright ...
Dione
The fourth largest moon of Saturn. Its trailing hemisphere features bright ice cliffs call...
Tethys
A mid-sized moon of Saturn made almost entirely of water ice. Home to Ithaca Chasma, a can...
Hyperion
A sponge-like moon of Saturn with a deeply pitted surface. Composed of about 40 percent em...
Phoebe
A dark retrograde moon of Saturn, almost certainly a captured Centaur from the outer solar...
Janus
A small inner moon of Saturn sharing nearly the same orbit as Epimetheus in a rare co-orbi...
Epimetheus
Shares an orbit with Janus in a unique gravitational dance. The two moons approach each ot...
Pan
A walnut-shaped moon orbiting inside the Encke Gap of the A ring of Saturn. Its gravity ke...
Atlas
A small moon orbiting just outside the A ring of Saturn. Has a dramatic flying saucer shap...
Prometheus
The inner shepherd moon of the F ring of Saturn. Repeatedly dips into the F ring and gravi...
Pandora
The outer shepherd moon of the narrow F ring of Saturn. Works with Prometheus to keep the ...
Telesto
One of the two Trojan moons of Tethys, orbiting 60 degrees ahead of it. Occupies a gravita...
Kiviuq
An irregular moon of Saturn belonging to the Inuit group. Orbits on a highly inclined, ecc...
Siarnaq
The largest member of the Inuit group of irregular moons of Saturn. Takes about two and a ...
Ariel
The brightest of the large moons of Uranus. Its surface features deep rift valleys resembl...
Umbriel
The darkest of the large moons of Uranus, reflecting only about 16 percent of light. Its s...
Miranda
A patchwork moon of Uranus with some of the most extreme terrain in the solar system. Home...
Puck
The largest of the inner moons of Uranus discovered by Voyager 2 in 1985. Orbits closer to...
Portia
The largest member of the Portia group, a cluster of small inner moons of Uranus. Discover...
Juliet
A small inner moon of Uranus. Discovered by Voyager 2 in 1986. A member of the Portia grou...
Cressida
A small dark moon of Uranus orbiting among the inner satellite group. Discovered by Voyage...
Rosalind
A small inner moon of Uranus. Discovered by Voyager 2 in 1986. Nearly round in shape despi...
Ophelia
A tiny moon of Uranus that acts as an outer shepherd for the Epsilon ring. Its gravity, to...
Sycorax
The largest irregular moon of Uranus. Orbits backwards at about 12 million km from the pla...
Nereid
The third largest moon of Neptune, discovered by Gerard Kuiper in 1949. Has the most eccen...
Proteus
The second largest moon of Neptune and one of the largest irregularly shaped moons known. ...
Larissa
The fifth closest moon of Neptune. First detected in 1981 when it briefly blocked a distan...
Despina
A small moon of Neptune orbiting very close to the planet. Discovered in Voyager 2 images ...
Galatea
A small inner moon of Neptune. Discovered by Voyager 2 in 1989. Acts as the inner shepherd...
Thalassa
A small irregular moon of Neptune. Discovered by Voyager 2 in 1989. Orbits between Naiad a...
Naiad
The innermost moon of Neptune. Discovered by Voyager 2 in 1989. Dodges collisions with Tha...
Halimede
A small retrograde moon of Neptune. Discovered in 2002 by a team led by Matthew Holman. Or...
Encke Comet
The comet with the shortest known orbital period, circling the Sun every 3.3 years. Second...
Hale-Bopp Comet
The Great Comet of 1997, visible to the naked eye for a record 18 months. Discovered indep...
Swift-Tuttle Comet
Parent body of the Perseid meteor shower, the best annual display of shooting stars. Disco...
Tempel-Tuttle Comet
Parent body of the Leonid meteor shower. Discovered independently by Wilhelm Tempel in 186...
Hyakutake Comet
The Great Comet of 1996, discovered by amateur Yuji Hyakutake with binoculars. Passed with...
Tempel 1 Comet
Target of the NASA Deep Impact mission, which fired a 370 kg copper impactor into it in 20...
Churyumov-Gerasimenko Comet
Comet 67P, famously shaped like a rubber duck. The ESA Rosetta spacecraft orbited it for t...
Borrelly Comet
A short-period comet imaged closely by Deep Space 1 in 2001. Its bowling-pin nucleus showe...
Wild 2 Comet
Target of the NASA Stardust mission, which flew through its coma in 2004 and returned come...
Holmes Comet
A normally faint comet that erupted in October 2007, brightening by a factor of half a mil...
Ikeya-Seki Comet
The Great Comet of 1965, a Kreutz sungrazer that passed within 450,000 km of the solar sur...
Shoemaker-Levy 9 Comet
The comet that collided with Jupiter in July 1994. Captured decades earlier, it was torn i...
ISON Comet
A sungrazing comet discovered in September 2012 that promised to become spectacular. Watch...
NEOWISE Comet
The brightest comet in northern skies since Hale-Bopp, visible in July 2020. Discovered by...
Lovejoy Comet
A Kreutz sungrazer discovered by amateur Terry Lovejoy in November 2011. Survived a death ...