In addition to the Sun, the planet Jupiter is indeed the largest in size and mass in our solar system, it is not for nothing that it is named after the main and most powerful god of the ancient pantheon - Jupiter in the Roman tradition (aka Zeus, in the Greek tradition). Also, the planet Jupiter is fraught with many mysteries and has been mentioned more than once on the pages of our scientific website, in today's article we will collect all the information about this interesting giant planet together, so forward to Jupiter.
Who Discovered Jupiter
But first, a little history of the discovery of Jupiter. In fact, the Babylonian priests and part-time astronomers were already well aware of Jupiter. ancient world, it is in their writings that there are the first mentions of this giant in history. The thing is that Jupiter is so big that it could always be seen in the starry sky with the naked eye.
The famous astronomer Galileo Galilei was the first who studied the planet Jupiter already through a telescope, he also discovered the four largest satellites of Jupiter. At that time, the discovery of satellites around Jupiter was an important argument in favor of the Copernican heliocentric model (that the center celestial system is , not Earth). And the great scientist himself, for his revolutionary, at that time, discoveries, was persecuted by the Inquisition, but that's another story.
Subsequently, many astronomers looked at Jupiter through their telescopes, making different interesting discoveries, for example, the astronomer Cassini discovered a large red spot on the surface of the planet (we will write about it in more detail below) and also calculated the rotation period and differential rotation of Jupiter's atmosphere. Astronomer E. Bernard discovered the last satellite of Jupiter Amateus. Observations of Jupiter with increasingly powerful telescopes continue to this day.
Features of the planet Jupiter
If we compare Jupiter with our planet, then the size of Jupiter is 317 times larger than the size of the Earth. In addition, Jupiter is 2.5 times larger than all other planets in the solar system combined. As for the mass of Jupiter, it is 318 times the mass of the Earth and 2.5 times the mass of all other planets in the solar system combined. The mass of Jupiter is 1.9 x 10 * 27.
Jupiter temperature
What is the temperature on Jupiter day and night? Given the great distance of the planet from the Sun, it is logical to assume that it is cold on Jupiter, but not everything is so simple. The outer atmosphere of the giant is indeed very cold, the temperature there is approximately -145 degrees C, but as it deepens several hundred kilometers into the interior of the planet, it becomes warmer. And it’s not just warmer, but simply hot, since on the surface of Jupiter the temperature can reach up to +153 C. Such a strong temperature drop is due to the fact that the surface of the planet consists of burning, releasing heat. Moreover, the inner parts of the planet emit even more heat than Jupiter itself receives from the Sun.
All this is complemented by the strongest storms raging on the planet (wind speed reaches 600 km per hour), which mix the heat emanating from the hydrogen component of Jupiter with the cold air of the atmosphere.
Is there life on Jupiter
As you can see, the physical conditions on Jupiter are very harsh, so given the lack of a solid surface, the high atmospheric pressure and the high temperature on the planet's surface itself, life on Jupiter is not possible.
Atmosphere of Jupiter
The atmosphere of Jupiter is huge, however, like Jupiter itself. Chemical composition Jupiter's atmosphere is 90% hydrogen and 10% helium, and some other chemical elements: ammonia, methane, hydrogen sulfide. And since Jupiter is a gas giant without a solid surface, there is no boundary between its atmosphere and the surface itself.
But if we began to descend deeper and deeper into the bowels of the planet, we would notice changes in the density and temperature of hydrogen and helium. Based on these changes, scientists have identified such parts of the planet's atmosphere as the troposphere, stratosphere, thermosphere and exosphere.
Why Jupiter is not a star
Perhaps readers have noticed that in its composition, and especially in the predominance of hydrogen and helium, Jupiter is very similar to the Sun. In this regard, the question arises why Jupiter is still a planet, and not a star. The fact is that he simply did not have enough mass and heat to start the fusion of hydrogen atoms into helium. According to scientists, Jupiter needs to increase its current mass by 80 times in order to start thermonuclear reactions that occur in the Sun and other stars.
Photo of the planet Jupiter
Surface of Jupiter
Due to the absence of a solid surface on the giant planet, scientists took the lowest point in its atmosphere, where the pressure is 1 bar, as a kind of conditional surface. Various chemical elements that make up the planet's atmosphere contribute to the formation of Jupiter's colorful clouds, which we can observe with a telescope. It is ammonia clouds that are responsible for the reddish-white striped color of the planet Jupiter.
The Great Red Spot on Jupiter
If you carefully examine the surface of the giant planets, then the characteristic large red spot, which was first noticed by the astronomer Cassini, when observing Jupiter in the late 1600s, will definitely not escape your attention. What is this great red spot of Jupiter? According to scientists, this is a large atmospheric storm, and so large that it has been raging in the southern hemisphere of the planet for more than 400 years, and possibly longer (considering that it could have arisen long before Cassini saw it).
Although in recent times astronomers noticed that the storm began to slowly subside, as the size of the spot began to shrink. According to one hypothesis, the great red spot will take on a circular shape by 2040, but how long it will last is unknown.
Age of Jupiter
At the moment, the exact age of the planet Jupiter is unknown. The difficulty in determining it is that scientists do not yet know how Jupiter was formed. According to one hypothesis, Jupiter, however, like other planets, was formed from the solar nebula about 4.6 billion years ago, but this is just a hypothesis.
Rings of Jupiter
Yes, Jupiter, like any decent giant planet, has rings. Of course, they are not as large and noticeable as those of his neighbor. Jupiter's rings are thinner and weaker, most likely they consist of substances ejected by the giant's satellites when they collide with wandering asteroids and.
Moons of Jupiter
Jupiter has as many as 67 satellites, in fact, more than all other planets in the solar system. The satellites of Jupiter are of great interest to scientists, because among them there are such large specimens that surpass in size some small planets (like already “not planets”), which also have significant reserves of groundwater.
Jupiter rotation
One year on Jupiter lasts our 11.86 Earth years. It is during this period of time that Jupiter makes one revolution around the Sun. The speed of the planet Jupiter in orbit is 13 km per second. Jupiter's orbit is slightly tilted (about 6.09 degrees) compared to the plane of the ecliptic.
How long to fly to Jupiter
How long does it take to fly to Jupiter from Earth? When Earth and Jupiter are closest to each other, they are 628 million kilometers apart. How far can modern spacecraft cover this distance? Launched by NASA back in 1979, the Voyager 1 research shuttle spent 546 days flying to Jupiter. Voyager 2 took 688 days to make a similar flight.
- Despite its truly gigantic size, Jupiter is also the fastest planet in the solar system in terms of rotation around its axis, so it will take only 10 of our hours to make one rotation around its axis, so a day on Jupiter is equal to 10 hours.
- Clouds on Jupiter can be up to 10 km thick.
- Jupiter has an intense magnetic field that is 16 times stronger magnetic field Earth.
- It is quite possible to see Jupiter with your own eyes, and most likely you have seen it more than once, you just didn’t know that it was Jupiter. If you see a large and bright star in the night starry sky, then most likely it is him.
Planet Jupiter, video
And finally, interesting documentary about Jupiter.
As you know, Jupiter is the most big planet solar system. The size of this planet is truly impressive, it is definitely the record holder for the size of the planets of the solar system, but planets have been discovered that are even larger than our Jupiter. But the true size of Jupiter is difficult to determine exactly due to a number of reasons ...
Problems measuring the size of Jupiter.
The planet Jupiter is officially named the largest planet in the solar system, but despite this, no one knows the real size of this planet. The problem with measuring Jupiter's size lies in its thick atmosphere, in which chemical reactions. All we see when we look at Jupiter are its clouds, which people take for the real size of the planet, but the true size of Jupiter can be much smaller.
Thick clouds of the planet make it difficult to see its surface, because it is by the size of the surface of the planet that we determine the size of the planet itself. In the case of Jupiter, the dimensions of the surface are taken into account by the visible boundary of the clouds, so scientists can only start from examining various data obtained from probes in Jupiter's orbit.
Size of Jupiter and Earth
318 times over size planet Earth. The mass of Jupiter is very huge, it is huge enough that Jupiter can attract objects flying past it. Also, due to the mass of the planet, there are static ones. Cases have been repeatedly recorded of how Jupiter attracted and absorbed into its atmosphere various space objects heading towards the planets Earth group. If not for this “protector”, then much more meteorites and asteroids would reach the Earth and could threaten our lives. Because of its size, Jupiter has a ton of satellites in its orbits, including .
So the size of Jupiter may have saved our planet hundreds of times. If not for Jupiter, then life on Earth could have been destroyed long ago by a meteorite that hit our planet.
Planets larger than Jupiter.
Despite the fact that Jupiter is by far the largest planet in the solar system, there are planets that are much larger than Jupiter. These planets are in other star systems and some of them are closer to their star than Jupiter. Being closer to the star, other gas giants have a temperature much higher than Jupiter, which makes these planets huge. TRES-4 is the largest known planet 
1. Jupiter is the fifth planet from our Sun and lies between Mars and Saturn. If you think the Earth is big, then it's nothing compared to Jupiter, which is the largest planet in our solar system. If we talk about volume, then 1300 planets like the Earth will fit in Jupiter. Gravity on this "giant" is 2.5 times greater than on Earth. If someone weighing 100 kg stood on the surface of Jupiter, then there he would weigh 250 kg. The mass of Jupiter is 317 times the mass of the Earth, and also 2.5 times the mass of all the other planets in the solar system combined.
2. Jupiter was the name of the supreme god in Roman mythology. Jupiter was the son of Saturn and also the brother of Pluto and Neptune. The supreme god was married to Juno, but he also had connections with other women from whom he had children. Jupiter's 4 largest moons (Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto) are named after some of Jupiter's lovers.
3. These were Pioneer 10, Pioneer 11, Voyager 1, Voyager 2, Galileo, Ulysses, Cassini and New Horizons. The first spacecraft to visit Jupiter was Pioneer 10. Of the most recent studies, the Juno probe, launched in 2011, should be singled out; it is assumed that it will reach Jupiter in 2016.
4. When looking at the night sky, the planet Jupiter is the third brightest object. The brightest objects in our solar system are Venus and the Moon. However, Jupiter shines even brighter than the most bright Star in the sky - Sirius. With good binoculars or a small telescope, you can see the white disk of Jupiter, as well as its 4 bright satellites.
5. Jupiter has the strongest magnetic field in our solar system. It is 14 times larger than on Earth. Some astronomers believe that such a field is created by the movement of metallic hydrogen inside the planet. Jupiter is a strong radio source, which can severely damage any spacecraft flying too close to the Giant Planet.
6. Despite its mass, Jupiter is the fastest planet in the solar system. It takes 10 hours for the planet to rotate completely. However, Jupiter takes 12 years to completely circle the Sun. Jupiter's rapid rotation is due to the magnetic field as well as radiation around the planet.
7. Jupiter has 4 rings. The most important of them - left after the collision of meteorites with 4 satellites (Thebe, Metis, Adrastea and Almatea). Unlike the rings of Saturn, no ice has been found in the rings of Jupiter. Recently, scientists have discovered another ring located closest to the planet. They named him Galo.
8. Storms on Jupiter and Earth are somewhat similar. On Jupiter, storms usually do not last long, about 3-4 days. However, there are exceptions - months. Hurricanes on Jupiter are always accompanied by lightning and are much stronger than storms on Earth. Strong hurricanes happen every 15-17 years, their speed is 150 m/s.
9. Jupiter has 63 moons. 4 massive satellites (Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto), called "Galilean" satellites, were discovered in 1610 by Galileo Galilei. Ganymede is the largest moon, at 5262 km from edge to edge, making it larger than the planet Mercury. This icy moon orbits Jupiter in 7 days. Another interesting satellite is Io, which is home to ferocious volcanoes, lava lakes, and huge calderas. Mountains on Io reach 16 km. This satellite is closer to Jupiter than the Moon is to us. Interesting fact: Most of Jupiter's moons are no more than 10 km in diameter.
10. In 1665, astronomer Giovanni Cassini was the first to discover the Great Red Spot on Jupiter. The spot looks like a giant anticyclone hurricane and was 40,000 km long a century ago. However, now its size has decreased by half. The Great Red Spot on the planet Jupiter is the largest atmospheric vortex in the solar system. Along its length, 3 planets the size of the Earth could be accommodated. It rotates counterclockwise at a speed of about 435 km/h.
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If you look at the northwestern part of the sky after sunset (southwestern in the northern hemisphere), you will find one bright point of light that stands out easily from everything around it. This is the planet, shining with intense and even light.
Today, people can explore this gas giant like never before. After a journey of five years and decades of planning, NASA's Juno spacecraft has finally reached Jupiter's orbit.
Thus, humanity is witnessing the entry into new stage exploration of the largest of the gas giants in our solar system. But what do we know about Jupiter and with what base should we enter this new scientific milestone?
Size matters
Jupiter is not only one of the brightest objects in the night sky, but also the largest planet in the solar system. It is because of the size of Jupiter that it is so bright. What's more, the mass of the gas giant is more than twice that of all the other planets, moons, comets, and asteroids in our system combined.
Jupiter's sheer size suggests that it may have been the very first planet to form in orbit around the sun. The planets are thought to have originated from the debris left after an interstellar cloud of gas and dust coalesced during the formation of the Sun. Early in its life, our then young star generated a wind that blew away most of the remaining interstellar cloud, but Jupiter was able to partially contain it.
Moreover, Jupiter contains a recipe for what the solar system itself is made of - its components correspond to the content of other planets and small bodies, and the processes that occur on the planet are fundamental examples of the synthesis of materials to form such amazing and diverse worlds as the planets of the solar system .
king of the planets
Given the excellent visibility, Jupiter, along with, and, people have observed in the night sky since ancient times. Regardless of culture and religion, humanity considered these objects unique. Even then, observers noted that they do not remain motionless within the patterns of constellations, like stars, but move according to certain laws and rules. Therefore, ancient Greek astronomers ranked these planets among the so-called "wandering stars", and later the term "planet" itself appeared from this name.
It is remarkable how accurately the ancient civilizations designated Jupiter. Not knowing then yet that it is the largest and most massive of the planets, they named this planet in honor of the Roman king of the gods, who was also the god of the sky. In ancient Greek mythology, the analogue of Jupiter is Zeus, the supreme deity of Ancient Greece.
However, Jupiter is not the brightest of the planets, this record belongs to Venus. There are strong differences in the trajectories of Jupiter and Venus in the sky, and scientists have already explained why this is due. It turns out that Venus, being an inner planet, is located close to the Sun and appears as an evening star after sunset or a morning star before sunrise, while Jupiter, being outer planet able to roam the entire sky. It was this movement, along with the planet's high brightness, that helped ancient astronomers mark Jupiter as the King of the planets.
In 1610, from the end of January to the beginning of March, the astronomer Galileo Galilei observed Jupiter with his new telescope. He easily identified and tracked the first three, and then four bright points of light in his orbit. They formed a straight line on either side of Jupiter, but their positions constantly and steadily changed in relation to the planet.
In his work, which is called Sidereus Nuncius ("Interpretation of the Stars", lat. 1610), Galileo confidently and quite correctly explained the movement of objects in orbit around Jupiter. Later, it was his conclusions that became proof that all objects in the sky did not orbit, which led to a conflict between the astronomer and the Catholic Church.
So, Galileo managed to discover the four main satellites of Jupiter: Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, satellites that scientists today call the Galilean moons of Jupiter. Decades later, astronomers were able to identify other satellites, total of which at the moment is 67, which is the largest number of satellites in orbit of a planet in the solar system.
big red spot
Saturn has rings, Earth has blue oceans, and Jupiter has strikingly bright and swirling clouds formed by the gas giant's very rapid rotation on its axis (every 10 hours). The formations in the form of spots observed on its surface are the formations of dynamic weather conditions in the clouds of Jupiter.
For scientists, the question remains how deep these clouds go to the surface of the planet. It is believed that the so-called Great Red Spot - a huge storm on Jupiter, discovered on its surface back in 1664, is constantly shrinking and decreasing in size. But even now, this massive storm system is roughly twice the size of Earth.
Recent observations by the Hubble Space Telescope indicate that starting in the 1930s, when the object was first observed sequentially, its size could have halved. Currently, many researchers say that the reduction in the size of the Great Red Spot is happening more and more rapidly.
radiation hazard
Jupiter has the strongest magnetic field of all the planets. At the poles of Jupiter, the magnetic field is 20,000 times stronger than on Earth, and it extends millions of kilometers into space, reaching the orbit of Saturn in the process.
The heart of Jupiter's magnetic field is considered to be a layer of liquid hydrogen hidden deep inside the planet. Hydrogen is under such high pressure that it becomes liquid. So given that the electrons inside the hydrogen atoms are able to move around, it takes on the characteristics of a metal and is able to conduct electricity. Given Jupiter's rapid rotation, such processes create an ideal environment for creating a powerful magnetic field.
Jupiter's magnetic field is a real trap for charged particles (electrons, protons and ions), some of which fall into it from solar winds, and others from Jupiter's Galilean satellites, in particular, from volcanic Io. Some of these particles are moving towards Jupiter's poles, creating spectacular auroras all around that are 100 times brighter than those on Earth. The other part of the particles, which is captured by Jupiter's magnetic field, forms its radiation belts, which are many times larger than any version of the Van Allen belts on Earth. Jupiter's magnetic field accelerates these particles to such an extent that they move in belts at almost the speed of light, creating the most dangerous zones of radiation in the solar system.
Weather on Jupiter
The weather on Jupiter, like everything else about the planet, is very majestic. Above the surface, storms rage all the time, which constantly change their shape, grow thousands of kilometers in just a few hours, and their winds twist clouds at a speed of 360 kilometers per hour. It is here that the so-called Great Red Spot is present, which is a storm that has been going on for several hundred Earth years.
Jupiter is wrapped in clouds of ammonia crystals that can be seen as bands of yellow, brown and white. Clouds tend to be located at specific latitudes, also known as tropical areas. These bands are formed by supplying air in different directions at different latitudes. The lighter shades of the areas where the atmosphere rises are called zones. The dark regions where air currents descend are called belts.
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When these opposite currents interact with each other, storms and turbulence appear. The depth of the cloud layer is only 50 kilometers. It consists of at least two levels of clouds: lower, denser and upper, thinner. Some scientists believe that there is still a thin layer of water clouds under the ammonia layer. Lightning on Jupiter can be a thousand times more powerful than lightning on Earth, and there is almost no good weather on the planet.
Although most of us think of Saturn with its pronounced rings when we mention the rings around the planet, Jupiter also has them. Jupiter's rings are mostly dust, making them hard to see. The formation of these rings is believed to have been due to Jupiter's gravity, which captured material ejected from its moons as a result of their collisions with asteroids and comets.
Planet - record holder
To summarize, it is safe to say that Jupiter is the largest, most massive, fastest-rotating, and most dangerous planet in the solar system. It has the strongest magnetic field and largest number known satellites. In addition, it is believed that it was he who captured the untouched gas from the interstellar cloud that gave birth to our Sun.
The strong gravitational influence of this gas giant helped move material in our solar system, pulling ice, water and organic molecules from the cold outer regions of the solar system to its inner part where these valuable materials could be captured gravitational field Earth. This is also indicated by the fact that The first planets that astronomers discovered orbiting other stars almost always belonged to the class of so-called hot Jupiters - exoplanets whose masses are similar to the mass of Jupiter, and the location of their stars in orbit is close enough, which causes a high surface temperature.
And now, when the Juno spacecraft already orbiting this majestic gas giant, scientific world it became possible to find out some secrets of the formation of Jupiter. Will the theory that did it all start with a rocky core, which then attracted a huge atmosphere, or is Jupiter's origin more like the formation of a star formed from a solar nebula? For these other questions, scientists plan to find answers during the next 18-month Juno mission. dedicated to a detailed study of the King of the planets.
The first recorded mention of Jupiter was by the ancient Babylonians in the 7th or 8th century BC. Jupiter is named after the king of the Roman gods and the god of the sky. The Greek equivalent is Zeus, the lord of lightning and thunder. Among the inhabitants of Mesopotamia, this deity was known as Marduk, the patron saint of the city of Babylon. Germanic tribes called the planet as Donar, which was also known as Thor.
Galileo's discovery of the four satellites of Jupiter in 1610 was the first proof of the rotation of celestial bodies not only in the orbit of the Earth. This discovery was also additional proof of the Copernican heliocentric model of the solar system.
Of the eight planets in the solar system, Jupiter has the shortest day. The planet rotates at a very high speed and rotates around its axis every 9 hours and 55 minutes. Such a rapid rotation causes the effect of a flattening of the planet and that is why it sometimes looks oblate.
One orbit around the Sun at Jupiter takes 11.86 Earth years. This means that when viewed from Earth, the planet appears to be moving very slowly in the sky. Jupiter takes months to move from one constellation to another.
The weight of any body, as we learned on school lessons physics, is determined by the force of attraction, which is directly proportional to the mass of the planet and inversely proportional to the square of its radius. Thus, it is clear that depending on the size and size of the planet, the weight of the body placed on the surface of the planet will also change.
Even on Earth, since it is not strictly spherical, the weight of any object varies with latitude. The earth is flattened at the poles and stretched along the equator. Therefore, a person who weighs, say, 80 kilograms in the region of the Arctic Circle, will lose about 0.5 kilos at the equator.
And how will the weight of a person change on different planets of the solar system?
Mercury
The mass of Mercury is one-twentieth of the weight of the Earth. Radio astronomical measurements of this planet were first made in 1961 by the Americans Howard, Barrett and Haddock. In the 1970s and in 2011, the Mariner and Messenger spacecraft were sent to Mercury. On Mercury, a man weighing 80 kg would weigh just over 30 kg.
Venus
This planet is sometimes called the "sister of the Earth" because the mass and size of Venus and the Earth are not too different from each other. Venus is only slightly smaller than our home planet. Research by Soviet scientists of the Energia Rocket and Space Corporation named after. Korolev, who sent the Venera-1 spacecraft in 1967, showed that the weight of a person here would not differ too much from that of the earth. The weight of 80 kilograms on Venus would decrease to 72 and a half kilos.
Mars
The mass of Mars is 10.7% of the mass of the Earth. Since the 60s of the last century, Mars has been actively studied by both our and foreign scientists. The missions "Mars" and "Phobos" (USSR), "Mariner", "Viking" (USA), "Mangalyan" (India) and others were sent here.
Thanks to these studies, we know that on Mars the weight of a person, which on Earth is 80 kg, will decrease to 30 kg.
Jupiter
The mass of Jupiter is 318 Earth masses. It was possible to study Jupiter, the composition of its atmosphere, mass and other parameters with the help of the launch of the spacecraft Pioneer (USSR), Voyager (USA) and others.
The weight of a person (if he weighs 80 kg) would reach 189 kg here. It should be noted that the weight is given for the upper cloud layer, and not for the solid surface, which is so deep on Jupiter that scientists know little about the processes taking place there.
Saturn
The mass of this planet is 95 Earth masses. Today, Saturn has been studied with the help of the Hubble Space Telescope, as well as launch programs spaceships Pioneer and Voyager.
At the boundary of Saturn's cloud layer, the weight of any body approaches the earth's, so 80 kilograms will turn into 73 here. The fact is that studies have shown extremely low density this planet. It is less than the density of water.
Uranus
Research under the Voyager 2 program allowed scientists to find out that the mass of Uranus is equal to 14 Earth masses. However, due to the low density, the weight of a person on Uranus would differ little from his weight on Earth. From 80 kilograms, 71 kg would remain.
Neptune
Neptune has a mass equal to 17 Earth. On this "gas giant", so far from the Sun that it is sometimes called the "ice giant", a person's weight equal to 80 kg on Earth would reach 90 kilograms.
Pluto
This tiny celestial body, whose mass is 0.0025 of the mass of the Earth (that is, 500 times lighter than the Earth!) Was discovered in 1930. Soviet scientists back in the 1950s suggested that Pluto is not a planet in the strict sense, but refers to celestial bodies called "dwarf planets". In 2006, Pluto lost the "title" of the planet and was included in the group of dwarf planets. A person who weighs 80 kilograms on Earth would weigh only 5 kilos on Pluto.
