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This article describes extreme locations of the Solar System. Entries listed in bold are Solar System-wide extremes.
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This article describes extreme locations of the Solar System. Entries listed in bold are Solar System-wide extremes.
| Record | Data | Feature | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Largest canyon | 4000 km long, 200 km wide | Valles Marineris, Mars | [1] |
| Tallest mountain | 22 km (13.6 mi) | Rheasilvia central peak, Vesta | [2] [3] |
| Tallest volcano | 25 km (15.5 mi) | Olympus Mons, Mars | [4] |
| Tallest cliff | 20 km (12.4 mi) | Verona Rupes, Miranda, Uranus | [5] |
| Largest impact crater | 2,700 km (1,700 mi) | North Polar Basin, Mars | [6] |
| Type | Average density | Average temperature | Average surface gravity | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lowest | Highest | Lowest | Highest | Lowest | Highest | |
| Star | 1.4 g/cm3 | 5778 K | 274 m/s2 | |||
| Major planet | 0.7 g/cm3 Saturn [12] [13] | 5.51 g/cm3 Earth | 73 K | 733 K | 3.70 m/s2 Mercury | 23.1 m/s2 Jupiter |
| Dwarf planet | 1.4 ±0.2 g/cm3 Orcus [20] [NB 1] | 2.52 ±0.05 g/cm3 Eris [21] | 30 K | 167 K | ≈0.2 m/s2 Orcus | 0.8 m/s2 Eris |
| Major moon of major or dwarf planet [NB 2] | 0.98 g/cm3 Tethys | 3.53 g/cm3 Io [22] [23] | 38 K Triton [24] | 250 K Moon [25] | 0.064 m/s2 Mimas | 1.796 m/s2 Io |
| Type | Escape velocity | Mass | Volume (radius) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lowest | Highest | Lowest | Highest | Lowest | Highest | |
| Star | 617.7 km/s Sun | 332,830 MEarth Sun | 695,000 km Sun | |||
| Major planet | 4.3 k m/s Mercury [18] | 59.5 km/s Jupiter [18] | 0.055 MEarth Mercury [28] | 318 MEarth Jupiter [26] | 2500 km Mercury [29] | 69911 k m Jupiter [28] |
| Dwarf planet | ≈0.43 k m/s Orcus | 1.3 km/s Eris | 0.0000916 MEarth Orcus [20] [NB 3] | 0.0028 MEarth Eris | 487.3 km Ceres | 1187 km Pluto |
| Major moon of major or dwarf planet [NB 2] | 0.16 km/s Mimas | 2.74 km/s Ganymede | 0.000006 MEarth Mimas | 0.0250 MEarth Ganymede [30] | 198 km Mimas | 2634 km Ganymede [22] [30] |
| Extreme characteristic | Major planet | Dwarf planet | Major moon (of a major or dwarf planet) [NB 2] |
|---|---|---|---|
| Densest atmosphere | Venus [NB 4] [31] [32] | Pluto | Titan [31] |
| Astronomical body | Elevation (height above/below datum) | Elevation (height above/below base) | Surface temperature | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Highest | Lowest | Highest | Lowest | Highest | Lowest | |
| Sun | N/A | 5,000,000 K In a solar flare | 1240 K In a sunspot | |||
| Mercury | 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) Caloris Montes, northwest Caloris Basin rim mountains | 723 K Dayside of Mercury | 89 K Permanently shaded polar craters | |||
| Venus | 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) Maxwell Montes, Ishtar Terra | 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) Diana Chasma, Aphrodite Terra | 755 K lowlands of Venus | 644 K Maxwell Montes, Ishtar Terra | ||
| Earth | 8,848 metres (29,029 ft) Mount Everest, Nepal - Tibet, China | 10,971 metres (35,994 ft) Challenger Deep, Mariana Trench, Pacific Ocean | 10,200 metres (33,500 ft) Mauna Kea, Hawaii, United States of America | 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) Marianas Trench, Pacific Ocean | 330 K Furnace Creek Ranch, Death Valley, United States (more info) | 184 K Vostok Station, Antarctica (more info) |
| Mars | 27 kilometres (17 mi) Olympus Mons, Tharsis [44] | 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) Hellas Planitia | 24 kilometres (15 mi) Olympus Mons, Tharsis [48] | 9 kilometres (5.6 mi) Melas Chasma, Valles Marineris | 293 K Martian equator in midsummer day | 120 K Martian poles in the depths of winter night |
| Jupiter | N/A | 152 K | 110 K | |||
| Saturn | N/A | 143 K | 82 K | |||
| Uranus | N/A | 68 K | 59 K | |||
| Neptune | N/A | 53 K [54] | 50 K [54] | |||
| Moon | 10,786 metres (35,387 ft) 5.4125°, 201.3665° [55] [56] | 9.06 kilometres (5.63 mi) Antoniadi Crater (-172.58°E, 70.38°S) | 400 K midday on the equator [57] | 26 K Permanently shadowed southwestern edge of the northern polar zone Hermite Crater in winter solstice [57] | ||
| Io | 17.3 kilometres (10.7 mi) Boosaule Montes [58] [59] | |||||
| Europa | 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) conical mountain (34.5N, 169.5W) [60] | 132 K Subsolar temperature [61] | ||||
| Ganymede | 156 K Subsolar temperature [61] | 80 K Nighttime temperature [62] | ||||
| Callisto | 168 K Subsolar temperature [61] | 80 K Predawn nighttime temperature [63] | ||||
| Titan | 2 km (1.2 mi) Mithrim Montes, Xanadu [64] | |||||
| Mimas | ||||||
| Enceladus | 110 K Tiger Stripes [65] | |||||
| Tethys | ||||||
| Dione | ||||||
| Rhea | ||||||
| Iapetus | 20 kilometres (12 mi) Voyager Mountains, equatorial ridge and bulge | |||||
| Ariel | ||||||
| Umbriel | ||||||
| Titania | ||||||
| Oberon | ||||||
| Miranda | 20 kilometers (12 mi) | |||||
| Triton | ||||||
| Nereid | ||||||
| Proteus | ||||||
| Charon | ||||||
| Ceres | 4.5 kilometres (2.8 mi) Ahuna Mons | 235 K | ||||
| Pluto | 3.4 km (2.1 mi) Norgay Montes, Tombaugh Regio [72] | 45 K | 35 K [73] | |||
| Eris | 41 K | 30 K | ||||
| Makemake | ||||||
| Haumea | ||||||
| The bodies included in this table are: (1) planemos; (2) major planets, dwarf planets, or moons of major or dwarf planets, or stars; (3) hydrostatically round so as to be able to provide a geodetic datum line. | ||||||
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant with an average radius of about nine-and-a-half times that of Earth. It has only one-eighth the average density of Earth, but is over 95 times more massive. Even though Saturn is nearly the size of Jupiter, Saturn has less than one-third of Jupiter's mass. Saturn orbits the Sun at a distance of 9.59 AU (1,434 million km) with an orbital period of 29.45 years.
Belinda is an inner satellite of the planet Uranus. Belinda was discovered from the images taken by Voyager 2 on 13 January 1986 and was given the temporary designation S/1986 U 5. It is named after the heroine of Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock. It is also designated Uranus XIV.
A protoplanetary disk is a rotating circumstellar disc of dense gas and dust surrounding a young newly formed star, a T Tauri star, or Herbig Ae/Be star. The protoplanetary disk may also be considered an accretion disk for the star itself, because gases or other material may be falling from the inner edge of the disk onto the surface of the star. This process should not be confused with the accretion process thought to build up the planets themselves. Externally illuminated photo-evaporating protoplanetary disks are called proplyds.
Thalassa, also known as Neptune IV, is the second-innermost satellite of Neptune. Thalassa was named after sea goddess Thalassa, a daughter of Aether and Hemera from Greek mythology. "Thalassa" is also the Greek word for "sea".
Perdita is an inner satellite of Uranus. Perdita's discovery was very complicated, as the first photographs of Perdita were taken by the Voyager 2 spacecraft in 1986, but it was not recognized from the photographs for more than a decade. In 1999, the moon was noticed by Erich Karkoschka and reported. But because no further pictures could be taken to confirm its existence, it was officially demoted in 2001. However, in 2003, pictures taken by the Hubble Space Telescope managed to pick up an object where Perdita was supposed to be, finally confirming its existence.
Mab, or Uranus XXVI, is an inner satellite of Uranus. It was discovered by Mark R. Showalter and Jack J. Lissauer in 2003 using the Hubble Space Telescope. It was named after Queen Mab, a fairy queen from English folklore who is mentioned in William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet.
Gliese 876 c is an exoplanet orbiting the red dwarf Gliese 876, taking about 30 days to complete an orbit. The planet was discovered in April 2001 and is the second planet in order of increasing distance from its star.
Gliese 876 b is an exoplanet orbiting the red dwarf Gliese 876. It completes one orbit in approximately 61 days. Discovered in June 1998, Gliese 876 b was the first planet to be discovered orbiting a red dwarf.
Upsilon Andromedae d, formally named Majriti, is a super-Jupiter exoplanet orbiting within the habitable zone of the Sun-like star Upsilon Andromedae A, approximately 44 light-years away from Earth in the constellation of Andromeda. Its discovery made it the first multiplanetary system to be discovered around a main-sequence star, and the first such system known in a multiple star system. The exoplanet was found by using the radial velocity method, where periodic Doppler shifts of spectral lines of the host star suggest an orbiting object.
There is evidence that the formation of the Solar System began about 4.6 billion years ago with the gravitational collapse of a small part of a giant molecular cloud. Most of the collapsing mass collected in the center, forming the Sun, while the rest flattened into a protoplanetary disk out of which the planets, moons, asteroids, and other small Solar System bodies formed.
HD 69830 d is an exoplanet likely orbiting within the habitable zone of the star HD 69830, the outermost of three such planets discovered in the system. It is located approximately 40.7 light-years (12.49 parsecs, or 3.8505×1014 km) from Earth in the constellation of Puppis. The exoplanet was found by using the radial velocity method, from radial-velocity measurements via observation of Doppler shifts in the spectrum of the planet's parent star.
A planetary-mass moon is a planetary-mass object that is also a natural satellite. They are large and ellipsoidal in shape. Moons may be in hydrostatic equilibrium due to tidal or radiogenic heating, in some cases forming a subsurface ocean. Two moons in the Solar System are larger than the planet Mercury : Ganymede and Titan, and seven are larger and more massive than the dwarf planets Pluto and Eris.
Kepler-11, also designated as 2MASS J19482762+4154328, is a Sun-like star slightly larger than the Sun in the constellation Cygnus, located some 2,150 light years from Earth. It is located within the field of vision of the Kepler spacecraft, the satellite that NASA's Kepler Mission uses to detect planets that may be transiting their stars. Announced on February 2, 2011, the star system is among the most compact and flattest systems yet discovered. It is the first discovered case of a star system with six transiting planets. All discovered planets are larger than Earth, with the larger ones being about Neptune's size.
Kepler-11c is an exoplanet discovered in the orbit of the Sun-like star Kepler-11 by the Kepler spacecraft, a NASA telescope aiming to discover Earth-like planets. It is the second planet from its star, and is most likely a water planet with a thin hydrogen–helium atmosphere. Kepler-11c orbits Kepler-11 every 10 days, and has an estimated density twice that of pure water. It is estimated to have a mass thirteen times that of Earth and a radius three times that of Earth. Kepler-11c and its five sister planets form the first discovered system with more than three transiting planets. The Kepler-11 system also holds the record of being the most compact and the flattest system discovered. Kepler-11c and the other Kepler-11 planets were announced to the public on February 2, 2011, and was published in Nature a day later.
Kepler-11e is an exoplanet discovered in the orbit of the sunlike star Kepler-11. It is the fourth of six planets around Kepler-11 discovered by NASA's Kepler spacecraft. Kepler-11e was found by using the transit method, in which the dimming effect that a planet causes as it crosses in front of its star is measured. Kepler-11e is most likely a gas giant like Neptune, having a density that is less than that of Saturn, the least dense planet in the Solar System. Its low density can probably be attributed to a large hydrogen and helium atmosphere. Kepler-11e has a mass eight times of Earth's mass and a radius 4.5 times that of Earth. The planet orbits its star every 31 days in an ellipse that would fit within the orbit of Mercury. Kepler-11e was announced on February 2, 2011 with its five sister planets after it was confirmed by several observatories.
Kepler-37b is an exoplanet orbiting the star Kepler-37 in the constellation Lyra. As of February 2013, it is the smallest planet discovered around a main-sequence star, with a radius slightly greater than that of the Moon and slightly smaller than that of Mercury. The measurements do not constrain its mass, but masses above a few times that of the Moon give unphysically high densities.
Kepler-37d is an exoplanet discovered by the Kepler space telescope in February 2013. It is located 209 light years away, in the constellation Lyra. With an orbital period of 39.8 days, it is the largest of the three known planets orbiting its parent star Kepler-37.
Kepler-90h is an exoplanet orbiting within the habitable zone of the early G-type main sequence star Kepler-90, the outermost of eight such planets discovered by NASA's Kepler spacecraft. It is located about 2,840 light-years, from Earth in the constellation Draco. The exoplanet was found by using the transit method, in which the dimming effect that a planet causes as it crosses in front of its star is measured.
Imke de Pater is a Dutch astronomer working at the University of California, Berkeley. She is known for her research on the large planets and led the team using the Keck Telescope to image the 1994 impact of the comet Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 with Jupiter.
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See also: Formation and evolution of the Solar System, list of the Solar System's objects by discovery date, by orbit, and by radius or mass, and the Solar System Portal | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
