Jupiter

Jupiter is a gas giant and by far the largest planet in the Solar System.

Jupiter

Diameter: 139,882 km
Mass: 317.8 Earths
Composition: Gas
Atmosphere: Hydrogen and helium
Surface Temperature: -108 °C
Year length: 11.86 Earth years
Day length: 10 hours

  • Jupiter is the third brightest body in the night sky after the Moon and Venus.
  • Jupiter has an immense mass two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined.
  • With an altitude of up to 5000 km, Jupiter’s atmosphere is the largest in the Solar System.
  • The famous “great red spot” that can be seen on most images of Jupiter is a persistant anticyclonic storm. This storm is larger than Earth and has been known since 1831, and possibly from as early as 1665.
  • Jupiter has at least 66 moons. Ganymede, which is greater in diameter than mercury, is the largest.
  • Jupiter is named after the Roman god of sky and thunder.
  • Pioneer 10 conducted the first flyby mission in 1973.
  • In 1995, the Galileo orbiter orbited the planet 7 times, releasing a probe which recorded data for almost an hour until it was crushed by Jupiter’s immense atmospheric pressure.