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Jupiter

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60 views

Jupiter

Uploaded by

zelle yi tian
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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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, but it may have a solid inner core about the size of Earth. Jupiter also has
rings, but they're too faint to see very well.

Structure and Surface

 Jupiter is the biggest planet in our solar system.


 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.

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 80 confirmed 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 be seen without advanced
telescopes.
 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.

https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/all-about-jupiter/en/

Quick Facts
Namesake King of the Roman Gods

Discovery Known to Ancient Cultures

Planet Type Gas Giant

Moons Yes

Rings Yes

Diameter 88,846 miles (142,984 kilometers)

Length of Day 9.93 hours

Length of Year 11.86 Earth Years

Distance from Sun 5.1 Astronomical Units (Earth=1)

Volume 1,321 (Earth=1)

Mass 318 (Earth=1)

Surface Temperature* -160 degrees Fahrenheit (-110 degrees Celsius)

› JPL Solar System Dynamics - Planets: Physical Characteristics


https://science.nasa.gov/jupiter/facts/
This picture is actually four pictures taken by Cassini put together. The dark spot on the left is the shadow
from Jupiter's moon Europa.

Jupiter's Moons
A montage of Jupiter's Moons
Credit: NASA/JPL
The gas giant planet, Jupiter has more than 90 moons. So far, fewer than 60 of the moons have
been named, the rest are waiting for official names.
Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto are known as the Galilean moons in honour of the the
astronomer who discovered them, Galileo Galilei. Galileo first observed these large moons in
1610. Most of Jupiter's smaller moons are recent discoveries - more than 70 of them have been
found since 1999. Astronomers may find more moons around Jupiter in the future.
Io, Ganymede and Callisto are the largest of Jupiter's moons. These 4 moons are each bigger
than the Earth's moon. They are so big, you can see them with a good pair of binoculars! They
will only look like small spots of light, a bit like a star. But you know they are moons because
they appear in a straight line that crosses Jupiter.
The other moons of Jupiter are much, much smaller than the Galilean moons. If you added the
total mass of those dozens of small moons to make 1 moon, it would still be thousands of times
smaller than Europa, the smallest Galilean moon.
Many spacecraft have visited Jupiter and its moons. The Pioneer missions took photos of the
Galilean moons in 1973 and 1974. The Voyager spacecraft discovered volcanoes on Io and
water ice on Europa in 1979. The Galileo spacecraft orbited Jupiter from 1995 to 2003 and
discovered Ganymede's magnetic field.

https://www.schoolsobservatory.org/learn/astro/solsys/moons/jupitermoon

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