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Size vs

How big is Io?

Io: 3,643 km (11,952,756 ft). Measured as diameter — mean diameter.

Io 3,643 km next to human adult 1.7 mIo is 3,643 km and human adult is 1.7 m, drawn on one baseline at the same scale.
Io 3,643 km next to human adult 1.7 mIo is 3,643 km and human adult is 1.7 m, drawn on one baseline at the same scale.

Source: Wikipedia — Io (moon)

Where it sits

Among the 16 planets & moons on this page Io ranks 12th from the top by size. The largest in the group is the Sun at 1,392,700 km, which is 382× the size of Io, while the smallest, Ceres, is 939 km.

Stand an adult of 1.7 m beside it and the ratio is 2,143,059×: you would need 2,143,058 people stacked head to foot to match its width — roughly a crowd the size of a small town standing on each other.

In everyday distances

A football pitch is about 105 m long. Io is 34,697× that, which puts it at 34,697 pitch lengths from end to end.

Light covers its diameter in 12 milliseconds. A jet cruising at 900 km/h would need 4 hours to fly the same distance in a straight line.

Next to its neighbours in size

The nearest thing larger than it in this collection is Mercury at 4,879 km (16,008,530 ft), 1.34× the size. Both figures are the same kind of measurement, so the gap is a fair one.

The nearest thing smaller is the Moon at 3,475 km (11,400,262 ft), so Io is 1.05× as big as it. They sit in the same group.

Against fixed yardsticks

Against three fixed yardsticks — Io is 11,040× the size of Eiffel Tower (330 m); Io is 121,846× the size of blue whale (29.9 m); Earth (12,742 km) is 3.5× the size of Io.

How this figure was taken

Worlds are listed by diameter. Gas giants are not round, so equatorial diameter is used for them and mean diameter for the rest. All figures are rounded from published mission data.

How the sizes are taken. Each figure says what it measures — height, length, diameter or elevation — and for which individual or convention. Everything is drawn standing upright on one baseline so a single scale holds, including things that are long rather than tall. Values come from the linked Wikipedia article for each item.

Read the rest — common questions

How big is Io?

3,643 km (11,952,756 ft), measured as diameter: mean diameter.

Where does Io rank among planets & moons?

Number 12 of 16 on this site, from the Sun at 1,392,700 km down to Ceres at 939 km.

What is the next size up?

Mercury, at 4,879 km, is 1.34× the size.

What is the next size down?

The Moon, at 3,475 km, is 1.05× smaller.

How reliable is the figure?

It is taken from the cited Wikipedia article and states its basis (mean diameter). Values are rounded, and where individuals differ the figure is a representative one, so expect small differences from other sources.

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