How much do you know about Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system? Sometimes referred to as “the king of planets”, Jupiter’s colossal volume could hold over 1,300 Earths! With 92 known moons or satellites, Jupiter has the most moons in the solar system – in fact, scientists anticipate discovering even more moons in the future. Let’s explore a few more Jupiter facts to help you take the universe by storm:
5 Jupiter Facts
-
- Jupiter is by far the largest planet in the solar system. (source) In fact, it is over twice as massive as all other planets in the solar system combined! 11 Earths could fit across Jupiter’s equator. If Earth was grape-sized, Jupiter would be basketball-sized!
-
- Jupiter is currently being explored by Juno, a solar-powered NASA spacecraft the width of a basketball court. (source) Juno launched on August 5th, 2011 and entered Jupiter’s polar orbit on July 4th, 2016. Juno has made some compelling discoveries such as Jupiter’s magnetic field being 10 times stronger than Earth’s and the presence of water near Jupiter’s equator.
-
- Jupiter’s Great Red Spot spins counterclockwise at speeds beyond 400 miles per hour. (source) The massive crimson-colored storm has a vortex larger than Earth itself. Recent data has found that the average speeds in the Great Red Spot have been slightly increasing over the past decade.
-
- Jupiter is a gas planet, but that does not mean it could be passed through. (source) It is more like a fluid planet that becomes denser and hotter the further in, much like how a submarine experiences crushing densities the deeper it descends into the ocean. In fact, Jupiter’s main component, hydrogen gas, gets compressed to such extremes that it transforms into an exotic metallic form. This means that Jupiter has a 25,000 mile deep soup of bizarre fluid swirling within its interior. Space.com states: “So think of Jupiter as a bottomless ocean of strange, exotic materials.”
-
- Jupiter has a faint four-part system of rings. (source) This dusty ring system is believed to be replenished by material deposited from the small moons Amalthea, Metis, Adrastea, and Thebe.
