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Jupiter is the only planet whose barycentre with the Sun lies outside the volume of the Sun, though by 7% of the Sun's radius. [ 130 ] [ 131 ] The average distance between Jupiter and the Sun is 778 million km ( 5.2 AU ) and it completes an orbit every 11.86 years.
Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system. If Jupiter was a hollow shell, 1,000 Earths could fit inside. Jupiter also is the oldest planet, forming from the dust and gases left over from the Sun's formation 4.5 billion years ago. But it has the shortest day in the solar system, taking only 10.5 hours to spin around once on its axis ...
- Potential For Life
- Size and Distance
- Orbit and Rotation
- Moons
- Rings
- Formation
- Structure
- Surface
- Atmosphere
- Magnetosphere
Jupiter’s environment is probably not conducive to life as we know it. The temperatures, pressures, and materials that characterize this planet are most likely too extreme and volatile for organisms to adapt to. While planet Jupiter is an unlikely place for living things to take hold, the same is not true of some of its many moons. Europa is one of...
With a radius of 43,440.7 miles (69,911 kilometers), Jupiter is 11 times wider than Earth. If Earth were the size of a nickel, Jupiter would be about as big as a basketball. From an average distance of 484 million miles (778 million kilometers), Jupiter is 5.2 astronomical units away from the Sun. One astronomical unit (abbreviated as AU), is the d...
Jupiter has the shortest day in the solar system. One day on Jupiter takes only about 10 hours (the time it takes for Jupiter to rotate or spin around once), and Jupiter makes a complete orbit around the Sun (a year in Jovian time) in about 12 Earth years (4,333 Earth days). Its equator is tilted with respect to its orbital path around the Sun by j...
With four large moons and many smaller moons, Jupiter forms a kind of miniature solar system. Jupiter has 53 confirmed moons and 26 provisional moons awaiting confirmation of discovery. Moons are named after they are confirmed. Jupiter's four largest moons – Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto – were first observed by the astronomer Galileo Galilei ...
Discovered in 1979 by NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft, Jupiter's rings were a surprise, as they are composed of small, dark particles and are difficult to see except when backlit by the Sun. Data from the Galileo spacecraft indicate that Jupiter's ring system may be formed by dust kicked up as interplanetary meteoroids smash into the giant planet's sma...
Jupiter took shape when the rest of the solar system formed about 4.5 billion years ago when gravity pulled swirling gas and dust in to become this gas giant. Jupiter took most of the mass left over after the formation of the Sun, ending up with more than twice the combined material of the other bodies in the solar system. In fact, Jupiter has the ...
The composition of Jupiter is similar to that of the Sun – mostly hydrogen and helium. Deep in the atmosphere, pressure and temperature increase, compressing the hydrogen gas into a liquid. This gives Jupiter the largest ocean in the solar system – an ocean made of hydrogen instead of water. Scientists think that, at depths perhaps halfway to the p...
As a gas giant, Jupiter doesn’t have a true surface. The planet is mostly swirling gases and liquids. While a spacecraft would have nowhere to land on Jupiter, it wouldn’t be able to fly through unscathed either. The extreme pressures and temperatures deep inside the planet crush, melt, and vaporize spacecraft trying to fly into the planet.
Jupiter's appearance is a tapestry of colorful cloud bands and spots. The gas planet likely has three distinct cloud layers in its "skies" that, taken together, span about 44 miles (71 kilometers). The top cloud is probably made of ammonia ice, while the middle layer is likely made of ammonium hydrosulfide crystals. The innermost layer may be made ...
The Jovian magnetosphere is the region of space influenced by Jupiter's powerful magnetic field. It balloons 600,000 to 2 million miles (1 to 3 million kilometers) toward the Sun (seven to 21 times the diameter of Jupiter itself) and tapers into a tadpole-shaped tail extending more than 600 million miles (1 billion kilometers) behind Jupiter, as fa...
- Jupiter is the fourth brightest object in the solar system. Only the Sun, Moon and Venus are brighter. It is one of five planets visible to the naked eye from Earth.
- The ancient Babylonians were the first to record their sightings of Jupiter. This was around the 7 or 8 century BC. Jupiter is named after the king of the Roman gods.
- Jupiter has the shortest day of all the planets. It turns on its axis once every 9 hours and 55 minutes. The rapid rotation flattens the planet slightly, giving it an oblate shape.
- Jupiter orbits the Sun once every 11.8 Earth years. From our point of view on Earth, it appears to move slowly in the sky, taking months to move from one constellation to another.
Mar 15, 2016 · Our solar system is made up of a star—the Sun—eight planets, 146 moons, a bunch of comets, asteroids and space rocks, ice, and several dwarf planets, such as Pluto. The eight planets are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Mercury is closest to the Sun. Neptune is the farthest.
Jupiter, the fifth planet from the Sun, is twice as massive as every other object in our Solar System combined (except the Sun). Jupiter's four planet-like moons have features like volcanoes and subsurface oceans, making Jupiter a miniature planetary system of its own. By studying Jupiter we learn more about how planetary systems evolve.
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Nov 15, 2024 · Jupiter, the most massive planet in the solar system and the fifth in distance from the Sun. It is one of the brightest objects in the night sky; only the Moon, Venus, and sometimes Mars are more brilliant. Jupiter takes nearly 12 Earth years to orbit the Sun, and it rotates once about every 10 hours.
