Jupiter Planet Details

Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system but relatively small in comparison to our sun. If we were to fill Jupiter up with Earth's, we would need approx. 1300 Earth's. Jupiter is the 4th brightest object in our sky. It is fifth planet in our solar system, approximately 5.2 AU; 460 million miles from the sun; it is approximate because it is orbit is an ellipse. Jupiter's surface is filled with gas, and so are the other planets further away from the sun. These gas planets are known as the Jovian planets. The composition of Jupiter is 90% hydrogen, and 10% helium. Jupiter's size is approximately 318 times the mass of the Earth. Its radius is approx. 43,441 miles and has a volume of 1.43x1018.

Jupiter also has an extremely strong gravitational pull that enables it to clears its own space, as well as clear space for planets around it. Thus it has been saving smaller planets such as the Earth from comets and asteroids. Jupiter mass is 1.89x1029 due to its constant ability to increase its size.

The name of planet Jupiter is named after the king of gods, Jupiter because of its size in comparison to other planets in our solar system. It takes Jupiter 11.86 years to make 1 complete revolution around the sun. On the surface of Jupiter, there appears to be a Great Red Spot that is a storm and has been observed for several centuries. This spot is approximately 12,000 km by 25,000 km. A Little Red Spot has sprung up recently, created by 3 storms, half the size the Great red spot.

Saturn is not the only planet with rings; the Voyager 1 spacecraft has found faint rings surrounding Jupiter in 1979. The Voyager 1 discovered 3 rings surrounding Jupiter. They are named Halo, Main and Gossamer.

Jupiter has a total of 63 moons; the largest are named Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, and Io. Galileo discovered these moons, so these moons are also known as the Galilean moons. Galileo was the first person to advance the most basic telescope in 1610 and primarily used this telescope to observe the sun, our moon and Jupiter. Jupiter was discovered in 1610. Each of these moons have different compositions. Volcanism has been observed on Io due to the heat that is created by tidal forces. Io is approx. 1.22 times the mass of Earth's moon and its period 1.77 days. Io is the fourth largest moon in our galaxy.

Europa has a liquid surface. It is the sixth largest moon in our galaxy. Europa is slightly smaller than the Earth's moon. This moon has a icy surface. It is believed that there is water underneath the ice. Ganymede has it's own magnetic field. Ganymede is the largest moon in our solar system, double the size of the Earth's moon. Forty percent of the surface of Ganymede is covered with craters. Callisto has a surface like our moon, and possibly geologically inactive. The mass is 1.45 times the Earth's moon, and extremely cratered. All of Jupiter's moons are located inside Jupiter's