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- Live Science - Jupiter: Facts about the king of the planets
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What is the period of revolution of Jupiter?
Jupiter takes nearly 12 Earth years to orbit the Sun, and it rotates once about every 10 hours, more than twice as fast as Earth.
When was Jupiter's ring discovered?
The existence of Jupiter's ring was first suggested in 1974, as a result of findings from the Pioneer 10 spacecraft as it approached the planet. The ring was verified in 1979 by the first Voyager spacecraft when it crossed the planet’s equatorial plane.
Is Jupiter the largest planet in the solar system?
Jupiter is the most massive planet in the solar system. It has an equatorial diameter of about 143,000 km (88,900 miles).
Jupiter is composed primarily of hydrogen and helium. Under equilibrium conditions, the abundant chemically active elements are all expected to combine with hydrogen.Thus, during earlier study of Jupiter, it was surmised that methane, ammonia, water, and hydrogen sulfide would be present. Except for hydrogen sulfide, all these compounds have been found by spectroscopic observations from Earth.
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Jupiter , the most massive planet of 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 is designated by the symbol ♃.
When ancient astronomers named the planet Jupiter for the Roman ruler of the gods and heavens (also known as Jove), they had no idea of the planet’s true dimensions, but the name is appropriate, for Jupiter is larger than all the other planets combined. It takes nearly 12 Earth years to orbit the Sun, and it rotates once about every 10 hours, more than twice as fast as Earth; its colourful cloud bands can be seen with even a small telescope . It has a narrow system of rings and 92 known moons , one larger than the planet Mercury and three larger than Earth’s Moon. Some astronomers speculate that Jupiter’s moon Europa may be hiding an ocean of warm water —and possibly even some kind of life —beneath an icy crust.
Jupiter has an internal heat source; it emits more energy than it receives from the Sun. The pressure in its deep interior is so high that the hydrogen there exists in a fluid metallic state. This giant has the strongest magnetic field of any planet, with a magnetosphere so large that, if it could be seen from Earth, its apparent diameter would exceed that of the Moon. Jupiter’s system is also the source of intense bursts of radio noise, at some frequencies occasionally radiating more energy than the Sun. Despite all its superlatives, however, Jupiter is made almost entirely of only two elements, hydrogen and helium , and its mean density is not much more than the density of water.
Knowledge about the Jovian system grew dramatically after the mid-1970s as a result of explorations by three spacecraft missions— Pioneers 10 and 11 in 1973–74, Voyager 1 and 2 in 1979, and the Galileo orbiter and probe, which arrived at Jupiter in December 1995. The Pioneer spacecraft served as scouts for the Voyagers , showing that the radiation environment of Jupiter was tolerable and mapping out the main characteristics of the planet and its environment. The greater number and increased sophistication of the Voyager instruments provided so much new information that it was still being analyzed when the Galileo mission began. The previous missions had all been flybys, but Galileo released a probe into Jupiter’s atmosphere and then went into orbit about the planet for intensive investigations of the entire system until September 2003. In July 2016, the Juno orbiter arrived at Jupiter for a mission expected to last two years. Other looks at the Jovian system were provided in late 2000 and early 2001 by the flyby of the Cassini spacecraft on its way to Saturn and in 2007 by the flyby of the New Horizons spacecraft on its way to Pluto . Observations of the impacts of the fragmented nucleus of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 with Jupiter’s atmosphere in 1994 also yielded information about its composition and structure.
Jupiter Facts
Jupiter is a world of extremes. It's the largest planet in our solar system – if it were a hollow shell, 1,000 Earths could fit inside. It's also the oldest planet, forming from the dust and gases left over from the Sun's formation 4.6 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.
Introduction
Jupiter's signature stripes and swirls are actually cold, windy clouds of ammonia and water, floating in an atmosphere of hydrogen and helium. The dark orange stripes are called belts, while the lighter bands are called zones, and they flow east and west in opposite directions. Jupiter’s iconic Great Red Spot is a giant storm bigger than Earth that has raged for hundreds of years.
The king of planets was named for Jupiter, king of the gods in Roman mythology. Most of its moons are also named for mythological characters, figures associated with Jupiter or his Greek counterpart, Zeus.
Jupiter, being the biggest planet, gets its name from the king of the ancient Roman gods.
Potential for Life
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 the likeliest places to find life elsewhere in our solar system. There is evidence of a vast ocean just beneath its icy crust, where life could possibly be supported.
Size and Distance
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 grape, 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 distance from the Sun to Earth. From this distance, it takes sunlight 43 minutes to travel from the Sun to Jupiter.
Orbit and Rotation
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 just 3 degrees. This means Jupiter spins nearly upright and does not have seasons as extreme as other planets do.
With four large moons and many smaller moons, Jupiter forms a kind of miniature solar system.
Jupiter has 95 moons that are officially recognized by the International Astronomical Union. The four largest moons – Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto – were first observed by the astronomer Galileo Galilei in 1610 using an early version of the telescope. These four moons are known today as the Galilean satellites, and they're some of the most fascinating destinations in our solar system.
Io is the most volcanically active body in the solar system. Ganymede is the largest moon in the solar system (even bigger than the planet Mercury). Callisto’s very few small craters indicate a small degree of current surface activity. A liquid-water ocean with the ingredients for life may lie beneath the frozen crust of Europa, the target of NASA's Europa Clipper mission slated to launch in 2024.
› More on Jupiter's Moons
Discovered in 1979 by NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft, Jupiter's rings were a surprise. The rings are composed of small, dark particles, and they 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 small innermost moons.
Jupiter took shape along with rest of the solar system about 4.6 billion years ago. Gravity pulled swirling gas and dust together to form 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 same ingredients as a star, but it did not grow massive enough to ignite.
About 4 billion years ago, Jupiter settled into its current position in the outer solar system, where it is the fifth planet from the Sun.
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 planet's center, the pressure becomes so great that electrons are squeezed off the hydrogen atoms, making the liquid electrically conducting like metal. Jupiter's fast rotation is thought to drive electrical currents in this region, with the spinning of the liquid metallic hydrogen acting like a dynamo, generating the planet's powerful magnetic field.
Deeper down, Jupiter's central core had long been a mystery. Scientists theorized Jupiter was a mostly homogeneous mix of hydrogen and helium gases, surrounding a small, solid core of heavier elements – ice, rock, and metal formed from debris and small objects swirling around that area of the embryonic solar system 4 billion years ago.
NASA’s Juno spacecraft, measuring Jupiter’s gravity and magnetic field, found data suggesting the core is much larger than expected, and not solid. Instead, it’s partially dissolved, with no clear separation from the metallic hydrogen around it, leading researchers to describe the core as dilute, or “fuzzy.”
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 stripes and spots – the cloud bands that encircle the planet, and the cyclonic storms dotting it from pole to pole. 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 of water ice and vapor.
The vivid colors you see in thick bands across Jupiter may be plumes of sulfur and phosphorus-containing gases rising from the planet's warmer interior. Jupiter's fast rotation – spinning once every 10 hours – creates strong jet streams, separating its clouds into dark belts and bright zones across long stretches.
With no solid surface to slow them down, Jupiter's spots can persist for many years. Stormy Jupiter is swept by over a dozen prevailing winds, some reaching up to 335 miles per hour (539 kilometers per hour) at the equator. The Great Red Spot, a swirling oval of clouds twice as wide as Earth, has been observed on the giant planet for more than 300 years. More recently, three smaller ovals merged to form the Little Red Spot, about half the size of its larger cousin.
Findings from NASA’s Juno probe released in October 2021 provide a fuller picture of what’s going on below those clouds. Data from Juno shows that Jupiter’s cyclones are warmer on top, with lower atmospheric densities, while they are colder at the bottom, with higher densities. Anticyclones, which rotate in the opposite direction, are colder at the top but warmer at the bottom.
The findings also indicate these storms are far taller than expected, with some extending 60 miles (100 kilometers) below the cloud tops and others, including the Great Red Spot, extending over 200 miles (350 kilometers). This surprising discovery demonstrates that the vortices cover regions beyond those where water condenses and clouds form, below the depth where sunlight warms the atmosphere.
The height and size of the Great Red Spot mean the concentration of atmospheric mass within the storm potentially could be detectable by instruments studying Jupiter’s gravity field. Two close Juno flybys over Jupiter’s most famous spot provided the opportunity to search for the storm’s gravity signature and complement the other results on its depth.
With their gravity data, the Juno team was able to constrain the extent of the Great Red Spot to a depth of about 300 miles (500 kilometers) below the cloud tops.
Belts and Zones In addition to cyclones and anticyclones, Jupiter is known for its distinctive belts and zones – white and reddish bands of clouds that wrap around the planet. Strong east-west winds moving in opposite directions separate the bands. Juno previously discovered that these winds, or jet streams, reach depths of about 2,000 miles (roughly 3,200 kilometers). Researchers are still trying to solve the mystery of how the jet streams form. Data collected by Juno during multiple passes reveal one possible clue: that the atmosphere’s ammonia gas travels up and down in remarkable alignment with the observed jet streams.
Juno’s data also shows that the belts and zones undergo a transition around 40 miles (65 kilometers) beneath Jupiter’s water clouds. At shallow depths, Jupiter’s belts are brighter in microwave light than the neighboring zones. But at deeper levels, below the water clouds, the opposite is true – which reveals a similarity to our oceans.
Polar Cyclones Juno previously discovered polygonal arrangements of giant cyclonic storms at both of Jupiter’s poles – eight arranged in an octagonal pattern in the north and five arranged in a pentagonal pattern in the south. Over time, mission scientists determined these atmospheric phenomena are extremely resilient, remaining in the same location.
Juno data also indicates that, like hurricanes on Earth, these cyclones want to move poleward, but cyclones located at the center of each pole push them back. This balance explains where the cyclones reside and the different numbers at each pole.
Magnetosphere
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 far as Saturn's orbit. Jupiter's enormous magnetic field is 16 to 54 times as powerful as that of the Earth. It rotates with the planet and sweeps up particles that have an electric charge. Near the planet, the magnetic field traps swarms of charged particles and accelerates them to very high energies, creating intense radiation that bombards the innermost moons and can damage spacecraft.
Jupiter's magnetic field also causes some of the solar system's most spectacular aurorae at the planet's poles.
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Asteroids, Comets & Meteors
Kuiper Belt
Jupiter is the fifth planet from our Sun and is, by far, the largest planet in the solar system – more than twice as massive as all the other planets combined. Jupiter's stripes and swirls are actually cold, windy clouds of ammonia and water, floating in an atmosphere of hydrogen and helium. Jupiter’s iconic Great Red Spot is a giant storm bigger than Earth that has raged for hundreds of years.
Jupiter is surrounded by dozens of moons. Jupiter also has several rings, but unlike the famous rings of Saturn, Jupiter’s rings are very faint and made of dust, not ice.
Jupiter, being the biggest planet, gets its name from the king of the ancient Roman gods.
Potential for Life
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 the likeliest places to find life elsewhere in our solar system. There is evidence of a vast ocean just beneath its icy crust, where life could possibly be supported.
Size and Distance
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 distance from the Sun to Earth. From this distance, it takes Sunlight 43 minutes to travel from the Sun to Jupiter.
Orbit and Rotation
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 just 3 degrees. This means Jupiter spins nearly upright and does not have seasons as extreme as other planets do.
With four large moons and many smaller moons, Jupiter forms a kind of miniature solar system. Jupiter has 80 moons. Fifty-seven moons have been given official names by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Another 23 moons are awaiting names.
Jupiter's four largest moons – Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto – were first observed by the astronomer Galileo Galilei in 1610 using an early version of the telescope. These four moons are known today as the Galilean satellites, and they're some of the most fascinating destinations in our solar system. Io is the most volcanically active body in the solar system. Ganymede is the largest moon in the solar system (even bigger than the planet Mercury). Callisto’s very few small craters indicate a small degree of current surface activity. A liquid-water ocean with the ingredients for life may lie beneath the frozen crust of Europa, making it a tempting place to explore.
› More on Jupiter's Moons
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 small innermost moons.
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 same ingredients as a star, but it did not grow massive enough to ignite.
About 4 billion years ago, Jupiter settled into its current position in the outer solar system, where it is the fifth planet from the Sun.
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 planet's center, the pressure becomes so great that electrons are squeezed off the hydrogen atoms, making the liquid electrically conducting like metal. Jupiter's fast rotation is thought to drive electrical currents in this region, generating the planet's powerful magnetic field. It is still unclear if deeper down, Jupiter has a central core of solid material or if it may be a thick, super-hot and dense soup. It could be up to 90,032 degrees Fahrenheit (50,000 degrees Celsius) down there, made mostly of iron and silicate minerals (similar to quartz).
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 of water ice and vapor.
The vivid colors you see in thick bands across Jupiter may be plumes of sulfur and phosphorus-containing gases rising from the planet's warmer interior. Jupiter's fast rotation – spinning once every 10 hours – creates strong jet streams, separating its clouds into dark belts and bright zones across long stretches.
With no solid surface to slow them down, Jupiter's spots can persist for many years. Stormy Jupiter is swept by over a dozen prevailing winds, some reaching up to 335 miles per hour (539 kilometers per hour) at the equator. The Great Red Spot, a swirling oval of clouds twice as wide as Earth, has been observed on the giant planet for more than 300 years. More recently, three smaller ovals merged to form the Little Red Spot, about half the size of its larger cousin.
Findings from NASA’s Juno probe released in October 2021 provide a fuller picture of what’s going on below those clouds. Data from Juno shows that Jupiter’s cyclones are warmer on top, with lower atmospheric densities, while they are colder at the bottom, with higher densities. Anticyclones, which rotate in the opposite direction, are colder at the top but warmer at the bottom.
The findings also indicate these storms are far taller than expected, with some extending 60 miles (100 kilometers) below the cloud tops and others, including the Great Red Spot, extending over 200 miles (350 kilometers). This surprising discovery demonstrates that the vortices cover regions beyond those where water condenses and clouds form, below the depth where sunlight warms the atmosphere.
The height and size of the Great Red Spot mean the concentration of atmospheric mass within the storm potentially could be detectable by instruments studying Jupiter’s gravity field. Two close Juno flybys over Jupiter’s most famous spot provided the opportunity to search for the storm’s gravity signature and complement the other results on its depth.
With their gravity data, the Juno team was able to constrain the extent of the Great Red Spot to a depth of about 300 miles (500 kilometers) below the cloud tops.
Belts and Zones In addition to cyclones and anticyclones, Jupiter is known for its distinctive belts and zones – white and reddish bands of clouds that wrap around the planet. Strong east-west winds moving in opposite directions separate the bands. Juno previously discovered that these winds, or jet streams, reach depths of about 2,000 miles (roughly 3,200 kilometers). Researchers are still trying to solve the mystery of how the jet streams form. Data collected by Juno during multiple passes reveal one possible clue: that the atmosphere’s ammonia gas travels up and down in remarkable alignment with the observed jet streams.
Juno’s data also shows that the belts and zones undergo a transition around 40 miles (65 kilometers) beneath Jupiter’s water clouds. At shallow depths, Jupiter’s belts are brighter in microwave light than the neighboring zones. But at deeper levels, below the water clouds, the opposite is true – which reveals a similarity to our oceans.
Polar Cyclones Juno previously discovered polygonal arrangements of giant cyclonic storms at both of Jupiter’s poles – eight arranged in an octagonal pattern in the north and five arranged in a pentagonal pattern in the south. Over time, mission scientists determined these atmospheric phenomena are extremely resilient, remaining in the same location.
Juno data also indicates that, like hurricanes on Earth, these cyclones want to move poleward, but cyclones located at the center of each pole push them back. This balance explains where the cyclones reside and the different numbers at each pole.
Magnetosphere
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 far as Saturn's orbit. Jupiter's enormous magnetic field is 16 to 54 times as powerful as that of the Earth. It rotates with the planet and sweeps up particles that have an electric charge. Near the planet, the magnetic field traps swarms of charged particles and accelerates them to very high energies, creating intense radiation that bombards the innermost moons and can damage spacecraft.
Jupiter's magnetic field also causes some of the solar system's most spectacular aurorae at the planet's poles.
- NASA Planetary Photojournal - Jupiter
- Planetary Rings Node
- NASA's Juno Mission
Essay on Jupiter
Students are often asked to write an essay on Jupiter in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.
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100 Words Essay on Jupiter
Introduction to jupiter.
Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system. It’s a gas giant, which means it’s made mostly of hydrogen and helium, just like the Sun.
Jupiter’s Features
Jupiter is famous for its Great Red Spot, a storm bigger than Earth. It also has thin rings and over 75 moons, including Ganymede, the biggest moon in the solar system.
Jupiter’s Role in the Solar System
Jupiter’s strong gravity protects Earth by attracting comets and asteroids that might otherwise hit us. It’s a vital part of our solar system’s balance.
250 Words Essay on Jupiter
Introduction.
Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, is a gas giant that has intrigued scientists for centuries. Its colossal size and distinctive atmospheric features make it a fascinating subject of study.
Physical Characteristics
Orbit and rotation.
Jupiter has the shortest day of all the planets, rotating on its axis every 9.9 hours. However, its orbit around the Sun is slow, taking approximately 11.86 Earth years.
Satellites and Rings
Jupiter’s gravitational pull supports a vast system of satellites. It has 79 known moons, the four largest being the Galilean moons. Additionally, Jupiter has faint rings composed of tiny dust particles.
Exploration
Human understanding of Jupiter has been significantly enhanced by spacecraft, such as the Pioneer, Voyager, and Juno missions. These missions have provided invaluable data about Jupiter’s magnetic field, composition, and the potential for a solid core.
Jupiter’s unique characteristics, including its size, composition, and extensive moon system, continue to captivate scientists. Its exploration offers invaluable insights into the formation and evolution of our solar system. Future missions are expected to unravel more of Jupiter’s mysteries, contributing to our understanding of the universe.
500 Words Essay on Jupiter
Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, has been a subject of fascination for astronomers and scientists alike. Its grandeur, coupled with its unique characteristics, makes it a compelling study in the field of planetary science.
Jupiter is a gas giant, primarily composed of hydrogen and helium, mirroring the sun’s composition. Its diameter is about 11 times that of Earth, and it possesses a strong magnetic field. Its most distinctive feature is the Great Red Spot, a storm that has been raging for at least 300 years. Jupiter’s rapid rotation (a day on Jupiter is only 9.9 Earth hours) causes its shape to be an oblate spheroid, meaning it’s flattened at the poles and bulging at the equator.
Atmospheric Conditions
Jupiter’s atmosphere is as intriguing as its physical features. It is composed mainly 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. The atmosphere exhibits a banded structure similar to Earth’s Hadley cells but on a much larger scale. The bands are formed by differing wind speeds at varying latitudes.
Jupiter’s Moons
Jupiter’s system is a miniaturized solar system in itself, with 79 known moons. The four largest, known as the Galilean moons (Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto), were discovered by Galileo Galilei in 1610. Each of these moons is a unique world. For instance, Ganymede is the largest moon in the solar system, and Europa is believed to harbor a subsurface ocean that may be twice the volume of all Earth’s oceans combined.
As the largest planet, Jupiter does play a significant role in the solar system. Its immense gravity influences the paths of comets, asteroids, and even other planets. Some scientists believe that Jupiter’s gravitational influence has helped shield Earth from excessive comet bombardments.
Exploration of Jupiter
Jupiter’s exploration has been conducted primarily via robotic spacecraft sent by NASA, including the Pioneer, Voyager, Galileo, Juno, and recently planned Clipper missions. These missions have provided invaluable information about Jupiter’s structure, atmosphere, magnetosphere, and moons. The ongoing Juno mission is currently studying Jupiter’s composition, gravity field, magnetic field, and polar magnetosphere.
Jupiter’s sheer size and unique characteristics make it a subject of ongoing interest for astronomers. Its influence on the solar system is significant, and its numerous moons present a wide array of environments for study. As we continue to explore Jupiter through advanced space missions, we can hope to further unravel the mysteries of this gas giant, enhancing our understanding of the universe in the process.
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All About Jupiter
Jupiter is a stormy planet that is probably best known for its Great Red Spot. The spot is actually a giant, wild storm that has been raging for more than 300 years. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Jupiter is the biggest planet in our solar system. It's similar to a star, but it never got massive enough to start burning. It is covered in swirling cloud stripes. It has big storms like the Great Red Spot, which has been going for hundreds of years. Jupiter is a gas giant and doesn't have a solid surface. It is still unclear if deeper down, Jupiter has a central core of solid material or if it may be a thick, super-hot and dense soup. Jupiter also has rings, but they're too faint to see very well.
Explore Jupiter! Click and drag to rotate the planet. Scroll or pinch to zoom in and out. Credit: NASA Visualization Technology Applications and Development (VTAD)
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Structure and Surface
- Jupiter is the biggest planet in our solar system. It is actually more than twice as massive than the other planets of our solar system combined.
- Jupiter is a gas giant. It is made mostly of hydrogen and helium.
- Jupiter has a very thick atmosphere.
- Jupiter has rings, but they’re very hard to see.
- The giant planet's Great Red Spot is a centuries-old storm bigger than Earth.
Time on Jupiter
- One day on Jupiter goes by in just 10 hours.
- One year on Jupiter is the same as 11.8 Earth years.
Jupiter's Neighbors
- Jupiter has 95 officially recognized moons.
- Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun. That means Mars and Saturn are Jupiter’s neighboring planets.
Quick History
- Jupiter has been known since ancient times because it can easily be seen with just our eyes. No special equipment is needed.
- Jupiter has been visited or passed by several spacecraft , orbiters and probes, such as Pioneer 10 and 11, Voyager 1 and 2, Cassini, New Horizons, and Juno.
- Jupiter has auroras , just like Earth! Not only are the auroras huge in size, they are also hundreds of times more energetic than auroras on Earth. And, unlike those on Earth, they never cease.
What does Jupiter look like?
This striking view of Jupiter's Great Red Spot and turbulent southern hemisphere was captured by NASA's Juno spacecraft as it performed a close pass of the gas giant planet. Credit: Enhanced image by Kevin M. Gill (CC-BY) based on images provided courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS
Astronomers are using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope to study auroras — stunning light shows in a planet's atmosphere — on the poles of the largest planet in the solar system, Jupiter. Credits: NASA, ESA, and J. Nichols (University of Leicester)
This new Hubble Space Telescope view of Jupiter, taken on June 27, 2019, reveals the giant planet's trademark Great Red Spot, and a more intense color palette in the clouds swirling in Jupiter's turbulent atmosphere than seen in previous years. The colors, and their changes, provide important clues to ongoing processes in Jupiter's atmosphere. Credit: NASA, ESA, A. Simon (Goddard Space Flight Center), and M.H. Wong (University of California, Berkeley)
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Planet Jupiter Overview
Explore the Solar System
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Jupiter: From a Wandering Star to the King of the Planets Essay
- To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
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Among a variety of the existing planets in the Solar System with their unique characteristics, importance, and relevance to the Earth, Jupiter remains to be one of the most interesting unusual and remarkable objects for consideration. Its history, as well as its name, is closely connected to the Romans. Its place in the system may be easily compared with the role of the Romans in history. During prehistoric times, Jupiter was called a “wandering star,” and nowadays, people name it as the “King of Planets,” particularly because of its size, magnetic field, and the dozens of moons in regards to other planets (Siegel 164). The current paper aims at discussing and evaluating Jupiter from different perspectives, mentioning its size, location, age, appearance, history, etc., and proving that it has to be cared for and studied thoroughly by people.
Jupiter is considered to be more than just an amazing object that can be observed in the sky. It is known due to its size (more than twice bigger than all other planets combined), its long history (its first record was dated in the 7 th BC), and its satellites (more than 60 moons are around the planet) (Tiner 43). On the one hand, this planet does not differ from the Moon or some other stars that can be visible from the Earth (Figure 1). On the other hand, its detailed analysis introduces the planet as a massive gas giant with absent surface and a faintly identified set of dust rings that amazes people and make them think about this planet as something unstable still important (Figure 2). This is why it is interesting to investigate Jupiter in order to prove that its specific characteristics make its role more crucial. Though its overview is a simple combination of numbers and metric data, its grandiosity cannot but amaze people.
Due to the presence of a number of moons as its satellites and a powerful magnetic field, the experts usually define Jupiter as a unique miniature solar system. There are four main satellites, which may be compared with the one of the Earth’s, the Moon; the others are smaller, still, their amount is influential indeed (“Fast Facts: Jupiter” par. 7). It is also stated that there is no life on Jupiter, but some of its moons with oceans may support life. However, this argument is hard to check for sure because of a few missions with positive results have been organized. In spite of the fact that Jupiter is more distant than Mars to the Earth, it is usually brighter, and it shines during the whole year around. Its shining is characterized as robust and constant (Tiner 42). This is why people can observe it from the Earth in case they know where and what to look at it.
The combination of some general facts about Jupiter can help to create a more or less clear picture of the planet and its development. In fact, the experts face a serious challenge defining its age, still, they admit that Jupiter is as old as the Sun. So, it is possible to assume that Jupiter is about 4.5 billion years. It is located in the Solar System with an average distance from the Sun about 483.600.000 miles and from the Earth about 390.000.000 miles, and its orbital period over the Sun is 11.86 Earth years (“Fast Facts: Jupiter” par. 3).
Though many people know Jupiter as the largest planet in the system, not all of them know that it is about 318 times bigger than Earth. In other words, its surface equals 122 Earth’s surfaces. There are also a number of lightning flashes that may be observed in the Jupiter’s atmosphere, and the experts admit that they are 1000 powerful than those on the Earth. It is also interesting to know what such a huge planet can consist of. There are two primary components of the planet’s atmosphere: hydrogen (86%) and helium (14%) (Tiner 51). The molecules of the gases are in constant motion, and the motion depends on the structure of the gas chosen (the lighter – the faster). However, the molecules of these two gases are not able to gain enough energy in order to become the reasons for a high gravity index.
In the paper, there has been already mentioned that Jupiter is the planet with a number of satellites of different sized. Tiner explains that it is possible to use the satellites in order to weigh the planet, still, this kind of weighing is more subjective because he talks an approximate mass of Jupiter (50). Now, it is known that Jupiter’s mass is about 1.900 x 10 27 kg (“Fast Facts: Jupiter” par. 5). Due to its great mass and the ability to cooperate with the satellites with a weaker gravity, Jupiter is characterized by a high gravity index.
In addition to such “dry” facts about such a magnificent planet as Jupiter, it is also possible to add several specific features that can attract people’s attention and introduce Jupiter from a new side. For example, the Great Red Spot on Jupiter is a result of a huge swirling gas storm lasted during several hundreds of years (“Fast Facts: Jupiter” par. 8). Its size is larger than Earth, and its importance is evident for the planet. The Spot was firstly introduced and discovered by Robert Hooke in 1664, still, his discovery was done in a wrong belt; and Giovanni Cassini observed its drifts in 1671. The periods with which the Great Red Spot drifted across the planet helped to identify the speed with which the planet actually rotated (Tiner 47).
The researcher was amazed how fast it could move, because 10 hours for such a huge and massive planet was really an amazing fact. Such huge speed also serves as an explanation of the planet’s form because its fast rotation leads to the bulge directed to its equator.
Each event on the planet may be an influential factor for its development as well as for the development of the planets around. For example, in the middle of the 20 th century, some astronomers truly believed that Jupiter could serve as a protective means for the Earth due to its atmosphere and gravity factor. Jupiter may have enough opportunities to make the crown of asteroids, comets, and other bodies thinner and less dangerous for the Earth. These suggestions help to realize that the Earth can be under a threat of numerous bodies of the Solar System, and it is wrong to neglect the impact of other planets, even such long-distant like Jupiter. The overview of the Jupiter’s history may become a helpful tool in realizing the importance and the role of the planet under consideration in regards to the whole system and the Earth in particular.
As it has been mentioned, Jupiter is as old as the Sun itself. The Babylonian astronomers recorded Jupiter and its activity in the 7 th century BC for the first time (Tiner 45). As many other discoveries of that time, it was associated with religion. The Babylonians associated the planet with their main god, Marduk, the Greeks knew him as Zeus, the god of thunder, the Germans saw the chosen planet as their god Thor, and the Romans named it after its king god, Jupiter. The results of these observations are based on the choice of the Romans. Nowadays, the whole world knows the hugest planet in the Solar System, Jupiter.
The name of Galileo is also connected to Jupiter and its history. This scientist and astronomer is known as a discoverer of the major moons of the planets in the beginning of the 17 th century. He turned his telescope to Jupiter and started examining its bright disks. Everyday observations provided Galileo with a solid basis for the discovery that the moons of Jupiter were as huge and massive as the satellites of the Earth.
Taking into consideration the above-mentioned facts and the results of the discoveries, it is possible to say about the importance of Jupiter in regards to the Solar System. First, its gravitational importance should be mentioned. Other planets may be protected due to the ability to decrease the number of cosmic bodies’ threats. Second, the evaluation of the Jupiter’s moons provided the scientists with hope in regards to life on the planet. The point is that the existence of underground oceans may create the necessary conditions for living. Unfortunately, these are only some guesses and suggestions that have to be supported by evidence and missions to the chosen planet and its satellites.
In general, Jupiter is the planet with a rich history. Its characteristics serve as the best proof that people have already learned a lot about this planet, still, there are also many issues that have to be identified, improved, and analyzed. It is not enough to know the fact that Jupiter is considered to be one of the largest planets in the existing Solar System (“Fast Facts: Jupiter” par.1). There are many other interesting facts that can be mentioned. Jupiter is the biggest gas planet that rotates within the shortest period in time compared with other planets of the same system. At the same time, it performs a protective function and helps other planets feel safe in regards to a number of asteroids and comets that move chaotically throughout the Solar System.
Though there is no life on Jupiter, people want to believe that additional investigations, constant missions, and evaluations of the planet’s possibilities make it real to admit one day that it is possible to live on Jupiter and use its riches for good. If the ancient people gave the name to this planet in honor of their main god, they probably did it for some reason. And the people of nowadays should not neglect the choice of their ancestors and try to understand why the name of such a crucial god was given to the planet. In fact, Jupiter has more secrets to be revealed in addition to the facts mentioned in the paper.
Works Cited
“ Fast Facts: Jupiter. ” Amazing Space n.d. Web.
Siegel, Chris, G. Stars of Light: The Hidden Message of Redemption: Message One , Bloomington, IN: CrossBooks, 2012. Print.
Tiner, John, H. Exploring the World of Astronomy: From Center of the Sun to Edge of the Universe. New Leaf Publishing Group, Green Forest, AR, 2013, Print.
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IvyPanda. (2020, August 16). Jupiter: From a Wandering Star to the King of the Planets. https://ivypanda.com/essays/jupiter-from-a-wandering-star-to-the-king-of-the-planets/
"Jupiter: From a Wandering Star to the King of the Planets." IvyPanda , 16 Aug. 2020, ivypanda.com/essays/jupiter-from-a-wandering-star-to-the-king-of-the-planets/.
IvyPanda . (2020) 'Jupiter: From a Wandering Star to the King of the Planets'. 16 August.
IvyPanda . 2020. "Jupiter: From a Wandering Star to the King of the Planets." August 16, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/jupiter-from-a-wandering-star-to-the-king-of-the-planets/.
1. IvyPanda . "Jupiter: From a Wandering Star to the King of the Planets." August 16, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/jupiter-from-a-wandering-star-to-the-king-of-the-planets/.
Bibliography
IvyPanda . "Jupiter: From a Wandering Star to the King of the Planets." August 16, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/jupiter-from-a-wandering-star-to-the-king-of-the-planets/.
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