Featured planetary moon
Ganymede
The largest moon, with a magnetic identity of its own.
Ganymede is larger than Mercury and is the only moon known to generate an intrinsic magnetic field. Dark ancient terrain and brighter grooved regions record a long geological history.
- Orbit representation
- Representative mean elements
- Surface
- derived map
Reference measurements
The numbers that shape this world
- Mean radius
- 2,631.2 km
- Mean orbital distance
- 1,070,400 kmSemi-major axis around the parent body.
- Orbital period
- 7.156 days
- Eccentricity
- 0.001
- Inclination
- 0.2°Local Laplace plane from the JPL pole
- Rotation
- Tidally locked
World portrait
A moon operating at planetary scale
Its size, internal differentiation and magnetic environment make Ganymede more than a satellite footnote. The body page keeps those planetary qualities in view while preserving its place in Jupiter’s resonant moon system.
System geometry
Ganymede in motion around Jupiter
Ganymede travels at a mean orbital distance of 1,070,400 km and completes a circuit in 7.156 days. Its eccentricity of 0.001 and 0.2° inclination are read against Local Laplace plane from the JPL pole. Synchronous rotation keeps the same hemisphere broadly oriented toward the parent body.
Representation notes
What Explore is showing
JPL fitted mean elements describe general orbit shape and orientation; they are not an accurate ephemeris.
Reviewed official global map prepared as a 1K display texture. Small no-data seams were cleaned without inventing large-scale landmarks; final seam, pole and lighting review remains device-dependent.
Provenance