Io
Listen now
Description
Transcript: Jupiter's Io is the closest to the planet of the four Galilean satellites. Its diameter is about 3,600 kilometers, and it is the most volcanically active world in the entire solar system. In 1996 a gravitational acceleration experiment on the Galileo space probe was able to measure a large iron core within Io that goes to nearly half the radius of the moon. Io has a larger density than any satellite in the solar system, about 3,500 kilograms per cubic meter, similar density to Mars.
More Episodes
Transcript: Jupiter's Ganymede is the largest moon in the solar system, just under 5,300 kilometers in diameter. That's 8 percent larger than Mercury and twice the size of tiny Pluto. Ganymede has an old fractured surface covered in groves and fissures. This dark surface is heavily cratered...
Published 07/21/11
Transcript: There are many types of interplanetary bodies, and they contain important clues as to the formation and evolution of the solar system. Interplanetary bodies range in size from 1,000 kilometers to chunks of rock the size of a house and smaller. They range in composition from icy to...
Published 07/21/11
Transcript: Several hundred years ago the astronomer J. Bode noticed a peculiar thing about the spacings and distances of the planets from the Sun. If, for example, you take a sequence of numbers that double, add four to each one and divide by ten you end up almost exactly predicting the...
Published 07/21/11