Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and is the largest one in the solar system.
If Jupiter were hollow, more than one thousand Earths could fit inside.
It also contains more matter than all of the other planets combined.
There is a ring system, but it is very faint and is totally invisible from the Earth. (The rings were discovered in 1979 by Voyager 1.)
Atmospheric Components
The atmosphere is composed mainly of hydrogen and helium, with small amounts of methane, ammonia, water vapor and other compounds.
At great depths within Jupiter, the pressure is so great that the hydrogen atoms are broken up and the electrons are freed so that the resulting atoms consist of bare protons. This produces a state in which the hydrogen becomes metallic.
Storms
The Great Red Spot is a complex storm moving in a counter-clockwise direction.
Auroral emissions, similar to Earth's northern lights, were observed in the polar regions of Jupiter.
The auroral emissions appear to be related to material from Io that spirals along magnetic field lines to fall into Jupiter's atmosphere.
Cloud-top lightning bolts,
similar to superbolts in Earth's high atmosphere, were also observed.
Mass (kg) ----------------------------------------------------------------------
1.900 x 1027
Mass (Earth = 1) ---------------------------------------------------------------
3.1794 x 102
Equatorial radius (km) ----------------------------------------------------------
71,492
Equatorial radius (Earth = 1) ---------------------------------------------------
11.2091
Mean density (gm/cm3) --------------------------------------------------------
1.33
Mean distance from the Sun (km) ----------------------------------------------
778,330,000
Mean distance from the Sun (Earth = 1) ---------------------------------------
5.2028
Rotational period (days) -------------------------------------------------------
0.41354
Orbital period (days) ----------------------------------------------------------
4332.71
Mean orbital velocity (km/sec) -------------------------------------------------
13.07
Orbital eccentricity ------------------------------------------------------------
0.0483
Tilt of axis (degrees) ----------------------------------------------------------
3.13
Orbital inclination (degrees) ---------------------------------------------------
1.308
Equatorial surface gravity (m/sec2)
-------------------------------------------- 22.88
Equatorial escape velocity (km/sec) -------------------------------------------
59.56
Visual geometric albedo ------------------------------------------------------
0.52
Magnitude (Vo) --------------------------------------------------------------
-2.70
Mean cloud temperature -----------------------------------------------------
-121°C
Atmospheric pressure (bars) -------------------------------------------------
0.7
Atmospheric composition -------------------------------------------
Hydrogen 90%, Helium10%
Jupiter's Moons
Sixteen moons have been discovered orbiting around Jupiter.
Most of them are relatively small and seem to have been more likely captured than to have been formed in orbit around Jupiter.
Four of the largest moons,
Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, are believed to have accreted as part
of the process by which Jupiter itself formed.
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Jupiter has a single ring that is almost uniform in its structure.
It is probably composed of dust particles less than 10 microns in diameter -- about the size of cigarette smoke particles.
It extends to an outer edge of about 129,000 kilometers (80,161 miles) from the center of the planet and inward to about 30,000 kilometers (18,642 miles).
The origin of the ring is probably from micrometeorite bombardment of the tiny moons orbiting within the ring.Jupiter's rings and moons exist within an intense radiation belt of electrons and ions trapped in the planet's magnetic field.
These particles and fields comprise the jovian magnetosphere or magnetic environment, which extends 3 to 7 million kilometers (1.9 to 4.3 million miles) toward the Sun, and stretches in a windsock shape at least as far as Saturn's orbit - a distance of 750 million kilometers (466 million miles).