JUPITER

King of gods, the sky, and thunder

Last updated:

USA[08/14/19]

NZL[14/08/19]

-[Size|Made Of|Atmosphere|Name Origin]

Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and is the largest in the Solar System. It is so big that if you were to combine all the planets in the Solar System, it would still be twice as big. It is also said that if Jupiter was about 80 times bigger, it would have become a star instead of a planet. The reason why Jupiter couldn't become a star was because of its mass. Jupiter needed enough mass to ignite fusion and become a star but Jupiter does not have enough mass. Jupiter is mostly made out of hydrogen and helium(like a star), and also has methane, water, and ammonia. The atmosphere of Jupiter is the largest planetary atmosphere in the Solar System. It is mostly made of molecular hydrogen and helium in roughly solar proportions; other chemical compounds are present only in small amounts and include methane, ammonia, hydrogen sulfide and water. Although water is thought to reside deep in the atmosphere, its directly measured concentration is very low. The nitrogen, sulfur, and noble gas abundances in Jupiter's atmosphere exceed solar values by a factor of about three. This large planet also has a very unique cloud layer in the upper atmosphere. It is divided into zones and cloud belts which are made of ammonia crystals, sulfur and a mixture of these two compounds. Jupiter gets its name from the Roman king of gods. In Greek mythology, Jupiter is known as Zeus and his brothers were Poseidon and Hades. In Roman mythology, Poseidon is Neptunes and Hades is Pluto. Zeus was also the god of the sky and thunder.

-[Orbit|Rotation|Magnetic Field|Moons]

Jupiter takes a very long time to orbit the Sun. In fact, it takes 11.86 Earth years for this giant planet to make one whole trip around the Sun. When you look at Jupiter from Earth, you can see how slowly it moves in the sky. It can take months for Jupiter to move from one constellation to another! But Jupiter's rotation is much faster than its orbit around the Sun. It actually is the fastest rotating planet in the Solar System. One rotation on Jupiter's axis would take 9.9 hours, compared to Earth's 23 hours and 56 minutes. This rapid rotation is also what causes the flattening effect of the planet, which is why it has an oblate shape. Jupiter also has a magnetic field that is 14 times stronger than Earth's and is the largest out of all the planets in the Solar System. Jupiter takes first prize for a lot of things in the Solar System. It also takes first prize for having the most Moons. Jupiter has a confirmed 79 Moons as of 2018 and there could be more Moons that haven't been discovered. Some of Jupiter's natural satellites, like the Galilean Moons which were discovered by the famous astronomer Galileo Galilei, have been named while others still have no official name!

-[Weather|Missions|Ring System]

This Gas Giant is the fourth brightest object in our Solar System! Jupiter also has an enormous storm that is the size of three Earth's in width, which has been raging on for at least 300 years! Jupiter's weather is very crazy and if anyone was to reach the planet and enter would die in a matter of minutes. The reason why only 9 spacecrafts have visited Jupiter, is because of the distance of the planet from Earth and the severe weather for spacecrafts wanting to enter the gas giant. Pioneer 10, Pioneer 11, Voyager 2, Voyager 1, Galileo, Ulysses, Cassini-Huygens, New Horizons, and Juno are the only spacecrafts which have visited Jupiter. When you think of a planet with a ring system, you would usually think of Saturn. But Jupiter also has a ring system which is very faint. Its ring is mostly comprised of dust particles from some of Jupiter's moons during impacts from comets and asteroids. The ring system begins about 92,000 km above Jupiter's clouds and reaches more than 225,000 km from the planet. The rings are somewhere between 2,000-12,500 km thick.

-Notes-

Type- Gas Gaint

Made of- Hydrogen, helium, methane, and ammonia

Temperature- (-145 C) center of the planet is much hotter

Diameter- 139,820 km

Mass- 1.89813 x 10^27

Distance from Sun- 778.5 million km

Distance from Earth- 588 million km (closest)

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