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Are there any planets or moons in the Outer Solar System, where a man-made object has landed and made photographs of its surface?

I can remember an article somewhere that said there's only one moon where anything has ever landed and sent pictures of the surface, but I can't remember which moon that was, and I'm also not sure that it was actually the only case.

Hobbes
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Zoltán Schmidt
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  • That's strange. Even considering surface gravity there are 6 moons with at least half of our Moon's surface gravity which means that astronauts could walk there. There are more than 100 moons out there, and almost 200 known Centaur asteroids which cross tthe orbits of the outer planets. – LocalFluff Apr 23 '14 at 10:53
  • What exactly do you mean by the 'Outer Solar System'? Traditionally that means Jupiter and beyond, but if you're talking about Trans-Neptunian objects (e.g. Pluto), there's plenty of unknowns. – john3103 Apr 23 '14 at 21:39
  • @john3103 Yes, but obviously there's only a few man-made objects that could ever go beyond Pluto, so I don't talk about that. – Zoltán Schmidt Apr 23 '14 at 22:32
  • "Ever" is a very long time. Given unpredictable advances in technology over the next few thousand years, I wouldn't bet against landing a probe on the surface of Alpha Centauri (yes, I mean the star). Do you want to update your question to limit the scope to current or currently planned technology? – Keith Thompson Apr 24 '14 at 22:59
  • @KeithThompson I think, the word "could" assumes that I'm talking about things which are already sent up in the past, and doesn't inclue objects that we're going to be sent up later. – Zoltán Schmidt Apr 24 '14 at 23:05
  • I accept that that's what you meant, but I didn't read it that way, and I still don't. I don't see a restriction to things that have already been launched in your question, and I think orique's answer makes the same assumption I did. I really think your question needs to be edited to reflect what you meant to ask. – Keith Thompson Apr 24 '14 at 23:07
  • @KeithThompson I think you overcomplicate the question itself. No offense, but if you have reservations, then edit it yourself. – Zoltán Schmidt Apr 24 '14 at 23:12
  • I don't want to edit it without being sure exactly what you're asking. Are you saying that if a Europa lander mission were launched next week, that wouldn't count as far as your question is concerned? I'm not aware of anything that (a) has already been launched, and (b) is capable of landing on any moon. – Keith Thompson Apr 24 '14 at 23:21
  • @KeithThompson In my view, questions that contain until now or could ever are always meant at the time when the question was asked - 24th April 2014, in this certain case. Though, answers can always be edited and added, if any change happens in the field that is related to the question. Exception is if changes happen frequently, but in this case, most certainly we don't have to worry about it. – Zoltán Schmidt Apr 24 '14 at 23:25
  • Can you please answer my question about Europa? – Keith Thompson Apr 24 '14 at 23:51
  • No, it doesn't count. But if it happens, you'd be free to add it in an additional answer. There's no problem with it I think. – Zoltán Schmidt Apr 24 '14 at 23:58
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    @Zoltán, I've edited the question in light of these comments. – Hobbes Apr 25 '14 at 06:39
  • @Hobbes thank you very much, it's pretty exactly is that I wanted to explain. Bad grammar... – Zoltán Schmidt Apr 25 '14 at 11:17

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In 2005 the Huygens probe successfully landed on Titan, satellite of Saturn.

My guess is that any body with a solid/liquid surface could be a suitable target. Many jovian or saturnine moons like Enceladus, Phoebe or Hyperion feature solid surfaces.

orique
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