Ganymede
The largest moon in the solar system, wider than Mercury and the only one with a magnetic field.
Where it is right now
Ganymede is in Cancer, 6.29 AU away.
Computed for 2 August 2026, 17:00 UTC, and recomputed at least hourly. This page is cached, so treat the line above as accurate to the hour rather than to the second. The map shows the live position.
Position from astronomy-engine's VSOP87-derived series, accurate to about an arcsecond.
Facts
Every line carries the source it came from.
- Mean radius
- 2631.2 kmSource: NASA/JPL Planetary Satellite Physical Parameters
- Orbits
- Jupiter, 1,070,400 km out on averageSource: NASA/JPL Planetary Satellite Mean Elements
- Orbital period
- 7.16 daysSource: NASA/JPL Planetary Satellite Mean Elements
- Orbit shape
- eccentricity 0.0010, inclined 0.20 degrees to Jupiter's Laplace planeSource: NASA/JPL Planetary Satellite Mean Elements
- Discovered
- 1610 by GalileoSource: NASA/JPL Planetary Satellite Discovery Circumstances
- Size
- 5,268 km across, larger than the planet MercurySource: NASA/JPL Planetary Satellite Physical Parameters
Physical size
- Mean radius
- 2,631 km
- Diameter
- 5,262 km across
Orbit
Elements are relative to Jupiter.
- Average distance from Jupiter
- 1.07 million km
- Eccentricity
- 0.0010, almost perfectly circular
- Inclination to Jupiter's reference plane
- 2.15 degrees
- Orbital period
- 7.2 days
- Longitude of ascending node
- 343.64 degrees
- Argument of periapsis
- 271.53 degrees
- Mean anomaly at J2000.0
- 324.80 degrees
Family
Orbits Jupiter.
Claim this body
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Catalog id ganymede. 3,172 objects on the map, of which 171 are hand-authored with sourced facts.