What is Ganymede explain two facts about it?

Facts about Ganymede

Age: Ganymede is about 4.5 billion years old, about the same age as Jupiter. Distance from Jupiter: Ganymede is the seventh moon and third Galilean satellite outward from Jupiter, orbiting at about 665,000 miles (1.070 million kilometers). It takes Ganymede about seven Earth-days to orbit Jupiter.

What is unique about Ganymede moon?

Ganymede is the only moon known to have its own magnetic field – something typically found on planets like Earth. The magnetic field causes auroras, or bright ribbons of glowing gas, that circle the moon’s poles.

What is Ganymede unique in the solar system?

The surface of Ganymede, the largest moon in the solar system, is composed of half water ice and half rock. This satellite of Jupiter is unique for its long, curved grooves in the crust, that make it unlike any other planetary body ever seen.

What is Ganymede the god of?

Ganymede is the god of homosexual love and desire. He was a divine hero whose homeland was Troy and was the most beautiful of mortals.

Does Ganymede have oxygen?

Ganymede has a thin oxygen atmosphere that includes O, O2, and possibly O3 (ozone). Atomic hydrogen is a minor atmospheric constituent. Whether Ganymede has an ionosphere associated with its atmosphere is unresolved. Ganymede’s discovery is credited to Galileo Galilei, the first to observe it, on January 7, 1610.

Is Ganymede made of ice?

Ganymede and Callisto are planet-sized moons of Jupiter, with surfaces composed of a mixture of dark dust and bright ice. Similar in size, they both have interiors of half ice and half rock/metal, but Ganymede’s interior appears to be segregated by density, while Callisto’s interior is mostly mixed.

How did Ganymede get its name?

Ganymede gets its name from a young Trojan boy in Greek mythology, who was made cup-bearer to the gods by Zeus. Ganymede was discovered by Galileo Galilei and Simon Marius in 1610.

Why is Ganymede known as a Galilean moon?

Jupiter’s four largest moons Io, Callisto, Europa and Ganymede are known as the Galilean moons because the first recorded observation of the moons was by Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei in 1610. The Galilean moons are fascinating worlds. Ganymede, for example, is the largest moon in the Solar System.

What was Ganymede named after?

Trojan prince
Ganymede’s discovery is credited to Galileo Galilei, the first to observe it, on January 7, 1610. Its name was soon suggested by astronomer Simon Marius, after the mythological Ganymede, a Trojan prince desired by Zeus (the Greek counterpart of Jupiter), who carried him off to be the cupbearer of the gods.

Can humans live on Ganymede?

Ganymede is the only moon with a magnetosphere, albeit overshadowed by Jupiter’s magnetic field. Because of this magnetic field, Ganymede is one of only two Jovian moons where surface settlements would be feasible because it receives about 0.08 Sv of radiation per day.

How does Ganymede compare to Earth?

With a mean radius of 2634.1 ± 0.3 kilometers (the equivalent of 0.413 Earths), Ganymede is the largest moon in the solar system and is even larger than the planet Mercury. However, with a mass of 1.4819 x 1023 kg (the equivalent of 0.025 Earths), it is only half as massive.

What planet has 4 moons around it?

planet Jupiter’s
The Galilean Moons

The planet Jupiter’s four largest moons are called the Galilean satellites after Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei, who first observed them in 1610.