World

Ganymede

Ganymede is Jupiter’s biggest moon and the biggest in the solar system, larger than Mercury, about 5 262 km across.

Key facts

Diameter

5 262 km

Goes round

Jupiter

See it from here

Common binoculars show it as a point of light beside Jupiter; by eye it is lost in Jupiter’s glare.

How the map draws it

Its surface is a black-and-white mosaic, tinted in a colour chosen from published descriptions · lit as a camera exposed for its own sunlight would show it · seen from far off it is a light at its computed brightness: the glow is how a camera records a point too bright to resolve.