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Moons of the Planets
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Io
Orbiting planet: Jupiter, Key features: Most geologically active body in the solar system with over 400 active volcanoes, Unique characteristics: Has a thin atmosphere composed mostly of sulfur dioxide.
Callisto
Orbiting planet: Jupiter, Key features: Heavily cratered icy surface, Unique characteristics: Considered the most heavily cratered object in the solar system.
Umbriel
Orbiting planet: Uranus, Key features: Dark, ancient, and cratered surface, Unique characteristics: Its most prominent feature is a ring of bright material on the floor of the crater Wunda.
Tethys
Orbiting planet: Saturn, Key features: Known for its high albedo, indicating a water-ice surface, Unique characteristics: Home to a massive canyon system called Ithaca Chasma and a large impact crater named Odysseus.
Europa
Orbiting planet: Jupiter, Key features: Icy surface with a subsurface ocean, Unique characteristics: Strong evidence points to the existence of a water ocean beneath its icy crust, possibly harboring extraterrestrial life.
Triton
Orbiting planet: Neptune, Key features: Retrograde, highly inclined orbit, Unique characteristics: Geologically active with cryovolcanism, and has geysers believed to spout liquid nitrogen.
Oberon
Orbiting planet: Uranus, Key features: Largest moon of Uranus, Unique characteristics: Shows signs of old impact cratering and possible cryovolcanic activity.
Rhea
Orbiting planet: Saturn, Key features: Second-largest moon of Saturn, Unique characteristics: Has a thin oxygen and carbon dioxide atmosphere and may have a tenuous ring system.
Iapetus
Orbiting planet: Saturn, Key features: Unique two-toned coloration, Unique characteristics: Has a very slow rotation and a mountainous equatorial ridge.
Miranda
Orbiting planet: Uranus, Key features: Known for its extreme geological activity with varied terrain, Unique characteristics: Has one of the highest known cliff faces in the solar system, called Verona Rupes.
Charon
Orbiting planet: Pluto, Key features: Half the size of Pluto, making it a large satellite relative to its parent body, Unique characteristics: Engaged in a mutual tidal locking with Pluto.
Mimas
Orbiting planet: Saturn, Key features: Resembles the Death Star due to its large crater, Herschel, Unique characteristics: The impact that caused the Herschel crater might have nearly shattered Mimas.
Deimos
Orbiting planet: Mars, Key features: Smaller and more distant of Mars' two moons, Unique characteristics: Has a smoother appearance compared to Phobos, with less pronounced craters and features.
Ganymede
Orbiting planet: Jupiter, Key features: Largest moon in the solar system, Unique characteristics: Only moon known to have its own magnetic field.
Titania
Orbiting planet: Uranus, Key features: Heavily cratered with large canyons and fault valleys, Unique characteristics: Known for having a surface covered in small, bright impact craters.
Enceladus
Orbiting planet: Saturn, Key features: Known for its geysers spewing water and ice, Unique characteristics: Has a subsurface saline ocean that may be a hospitable environment for microbial life.
Ariel
Orbiting planet: Uranus, Key features: Has the brightest and youngest surface of Uranus' moons, Unique characteristics: Features intersecting valleys and ridges indicating geological activity after formation.
Dione
Orbiting planet: Saturn, Key features: Characterized by bright icy cliffs and a wispy terrain of ice cliffs and fractures, Unique characteristics: Has a transient atmosphere that contains oxygen ions.
Phobos
Orbiting planet: Mars, Key features: Larger and closer of Mars' two moons, Unique characteristics: Potentially a captured asteroid; it orbits so close to Mars that it will eventually either crash into the planet or break apart.
Titan
Orbiting planet: Saturn, Key features: Thick atmosphere primarily composed of nitrogen, Unique characteristics: Only other place in the solar system besides Earth known to have stable bodies of surface liquid.
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