Surface area

From CreationWiki, the encyclopedia of creation science

The surface area of any celestial body is the total measure of the area of its surface. For an object in a hydrostatic-equilibrium or near-spherical shape, the surface area is a function of the equatorial and polar radii of the object. But some objects, like the Martian moons Phobos and Deimos, have highly irregular shapes, and their surface areas do not lend themselves to an accurate calculation.

Surface areas of solar system bodies are often given not only in traditional units of area but also as a fraction or multiple of the surface area of the earth.