Of the terrestrial planets, only the Earth has a moon comparable in size to itself
2006-10-02 08:31:42 · 6 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Very true.
Earth's moon is in fact the fifth largest moon in the solar system and has a diameter of 3476 kilometers. Since Earth's diameter is 12,753 km, this makes the moon 27.25% the size of Earth.
The larger moons are
Callisto (of Jupiter; diameter of 4800 km)
Ganymede (of Jupiter; diameter of 5276 km)
Io (of Jupiter; diameter of 3629 km)
Titan (of Saturn; diameter of 5150 km)
In comparison Mars has a diameter of 6785 km, only about twice that of our moon, and Pluto has a diameter of 2390 km, only about two-thirds the size of our moon.
2006-10-02 10:12:04 · answer #1 · answered by wdmc 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Mercury and Venus have no moons. Earth has one, the 5th biggest (smaller than Ganymede, Titan, Callisto and Io but larger than Europa and Triton) of the 250 in the Solar System. Mars has two, Phobos and Deimos but they are tiny, smaller than 25 kms in diameter.
Those are the four terrestrial planets.
Diameters:
Earth: Equatorial diameter 12,756.3 km
Moon: Equatorial diameter 3,476.2 km (0.273 Earths)
Mars: Equatorial diameter 6,804.9 km (0.533 Earths)
Phobos: Mean diameter 22.2 km (26.8 Ã 21 Ã 18.4) (0.0021 Earths)
Deimos: Mean diameter 12.6 km (15.0 Ã 12 Ã 10.4)
So yes what you say is true
The usual load of misinformed guesses, I see.
(1) Pluto was never regarded as a terrestrial planet, It isn't earth-like which is what "terrestrial" means,
(2) As for the contributor who offered us "mars has phoboes and demenos which are probably around the same ratio of the size of the earth to the moon". all I can say is:
a) "learn to spell"
b) "probably isn't good enough. If you are not sure, look it up! I did."
c) "Mars is 309 times the diameter of its larger moon and Earth is less than 4 times the diameter of its moon. So what are you talking about?"
(3) the minimum size for an object to be classed as an asteroid is 50 kilometres, so neither Phobos not Deimos would have been regarded as asteroids if they were once in the asteroid belt, prior to capture.
I am not saying any of this to put people down. I just don't think misinformation should go unchallenged. We are supposed to share what we KNOW. Not what we guess to be the case.
2006-10-02 19:04:02 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Since Pluto wasn't a terrestrial planet, I believe you can state this as being "true."
And Phobos and Deimos are roughly the size of captured asteroids. You could compare them to Mars, yes. However, they are not "comparable" in size (as the colloquial use of the word would have us say).
The links below, to Google's calculator, show that the Moon has a volume roughly 1/50th that of the Earth's.
2006-10-02 15:39:38 · answer #3 · answered by galaxy625 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
comparable? the moon is much smaller than the earth, also mars has phoboes and demenos which are probably around the same ratio of the size of the earth to the moon.
2006-10-02 15:39:22 · answer #4 · answered by tkachuk51 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
yeah, true, mars's moons are tiny compaired to its mass, and venus and mercury dont have one ;
mars's moons: Mars has two moons, Phobos and Deimos, which are small and oddly-shaped. These may be captured asteroids
2006-10-02 16:46:28 · answer #5 · answered by prof. Jack 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If Pluto is still a Planet, this is False...
2006-10-02 15:34:43 · answer #6 · answered by entropy 3 · 0⤊ 2⤋