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The Gas Giants: Jupiter

© Jason Wood

Jupiter is, by far, the largest planet in the solar system -- so big you could fit over 12,000 Earths within it. The diameter of Jupiter is almost 88,846 miles (Earth: 7,926 miles). Jupiter is 5.2 AU's from the sun. (AU stands for Astronomical Unit and is roughly the distance from the Sun to the Earth). So, Jupiter is five times farther from the Sun than Earth is.

The clouds on Jupiter are stretched long and narrow because of its fast rotation. They are composed of 85% hydrogen, 14% helium and one percent "other." That one percent is what makes the color in Jupiter's clouds. These complex molecules such as ethane and phosphine exist in very small numbers compared to the amount of hydrogen and helium. Astronomers think this is a good look at what the original nebula was made of when the solar system formed. Jupiter is not massive enough to start a fusion reaction, and because it's far enough from the sun it did not have the light molecules (hydrogen and helium) blown off the planet by solar winds.

Jupiter rotates at different speeds at different locations. At the equator, Jupiter rotates in nine hours and 50 minutes, but at the poles it rotates in nine hours, 56 minutes.

Jupiter's most known feature would probably be the Great Red Spot. This is a storm that has been raging on Jupiter for more than 300 years and is large enough to fit more that two earths within -- and that's just on the surface. It's hard to say how far down the storm rages. It also has two neighbors, two white colored storms that have been raging for about 45 years.

Jupiter has a temperature of about minus 240 degrees F. at the top of the clouds. Jupiter most likely has blizzards larger than the size of Earth that are made of ammonia. However, when you get down to the metallic hydrogen core the temperature gets up to 10,000 degrees. This core is most likely liquid. It's this massive core of liquid ionized hydrogen that gives Jupiter its massive magnetic field, which is 20,000 times stronger than Earth's. It's so strong that a person traveling in the space shuttle would instantly die if he passed through it.

Like Saturn, Jupiter has a couple of rings. But they are too thin to be seen by Earth and were first recorded by Voyager 1. Jupiter also has 16 moons. However, we can only see four of them from Earth. Of the remaining 12, only two are more than 100 miles in diameter (120 and 114). These small moons are most likely asteroids that were caught by Jupiter's gravity and have been within its grasp ever since.

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