The solar system’s tallest mountains sit on moons, asteroids and planets beyond Earth, and many dwarf Mount Everest’s roughly 5.5-mile elevation. Notable peaks include Ionian Mons (~8 miles) and Boösaule Montes (~10.9 miles) on Io, Iapetus’s equatorial ridge (~12 miles), Mars’s Ascraeus Mons (~11 miles), Vesta’s Rheasilvia central peak (~14 miles), and Olympus Mons — the largest at nearly 16 miles high and ~374 miles across. These extraordinary features highlight the remarkable variety of planetary geology beyond Earth.
Summit the Solar System’s Tallest Peaks (If You Dare)
The solar system’s tallest mountains sit on moons, asteroids and planets beyond Earth, and many dwarf Mount Everest’s roughly 5.5-mile elevation. Notable peaks include Ionian Mons (~8 miles) and Boösaule Montes (~10.9 miles) on Io, Iapetus’s equatorial ridge (~12 miles), Mars’s Ascraeus Mons (~11 miles), Vesta’s Rheasilvia central peak (~14 miles), and Olympus Mons — the largest at nearly 16 miles high and ~374 miles across. These extraordinary features highlight the remarkable variety of planetary geology beyond Earth.
00:49, 09.11.2025Science
Summit the Solar System’s Tallest Peaks (If You Dare)
If you crave extreme vistas, consider aiming for peaks far beyond Earth — though the journey would be far from a simple hike. The solar system’s highest mountains rise on other planets, moons and asteroids, and many dwarf Mount Everest’s roughly 5.5-mile (about 30,000-foot) elevation.
Below are some of the most spectacular extraterrestrial summits known to science, each presenting a challenge far greater than any terrestrial climb.
Io (Jupiter’s moon)
Ionian Mons — estimated at nearly 8 miles (≈13 km) high. Io is the solar system’s most volcanically active world; researchers have identified more than 130 distinct mountain structures and hundreds of volcanic regions across its surface.
Boösaule Montes — rises to roughly 10.9 miles (≈17.5 km). The name refers to a mythic cave associated with Io, the figure from Greek myth after whom the moon is named.
Iapetus (Saturn’s moon)
Iapetus features a dramatic equatorial ridge with peaks reaching about 12 miles (≈19 km). This spine wraps around the moon and gives it a distinctive walnut-like profile despite Iapetus being almost 650 times smaller in volume than Earth.
Mars
Ascraeus Mons — a towering volcano that stands around 11 miles (≈17.5 km) high. For comparison, Earth’s tallest volcano measured from base (below sea level) to summit, Mauna Kea, rises roughly 6.2 miles (≈10 km).
Vesta (asteroid)
About 1 billion years ago an impact carved the vast Rheasilvia basin, roughly 311 miles (≈500 km) across. At its center a central uplift rises about 14 miles (≈22.5 km) above the crater floor — one of the tallest known peaks in the asteroid belt.
Mars’ Giant: Olympus Mons
Olympus Mons is the tallest known volcano and mountain in the solar system, reaching up to roughly 16 miles (≈25–26 km) in height and spanning about 374 miles (≈600 km) across — comparable in width to the state of Arizona. Its sheer size is difficult to fathom from an Earth-bound perspective.
Quick tip: If you ever plan to visit one of these formidable formations, pack abundant water and oxygen — and expect conditions far more extreme than any Earth climb.
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