Ganymede (moon) Ganymede. The most recent close observations of Ganymede were made by "New Horizons", which recorded topographic and compositional mapping data of Europa and Ganymede during its flyby of Jupiter in 2007 en route to Pluto. The Europa Jupiter System Mission (EJSM) had a proposed launch date in 2020, and was a joint NASA and ESA proposal for exploration of many of Jupiter's moons including Ganymede. In February 2009 it was announced that ESA and NASA had given this mission priority ahead of the Titan Saturn System Mission. EJSM consisted of the NASA-led Jupiter Europa Orbiter, the ESA-led Jupiter Ganymede Orbiter,
Formation and evolution of the Solar System This origin is indicated by the large sizes of the moons and their proximity to the planet. These attributes are impossible to achieve via capture, while the gaseous nature of the primaries also make formation from collision debris unlikely. The outer moons of the giant planets tend to be small and have eccentric orbits with arbitrary inclinations. These are the characteristics expected of captured bodies. Most such moons orbit in the direction opposite the rotation of their primary. The largest irregular moon is Neptune's moon Triton, which is thought to be a captured Kuiper belt object. Moons of solid Solar