Jupiter is widely known throughout the world as a giant planet. This is one of the bodies with the largest volume and mass in the entire solar system. Scientists have always been very interested in knowing what is happening on Jupiter, but, unfortunately, there is still much that remains unknown.
Despite this, a lot of information about the structure of the giant planet was obtained during various space missions. The most interesting facts about Jupiter will be discussed in this material. The article is intended for children, but adults will also not be amiss to recall the knowledge of the school curriculum.
10. Meteorology on Jupiter
The phenomena that occur in the atmosphere of Jupiter are unusual, and many of them are inexplicable. The composition of the atmosphere, its gigantic size of the planet and its enormous mass make meteorology difficult to study.
The atmosphere of Jupiter consists of more than 80% hydrogen, also there we can find helium, methane, ammonia, ethane. And inside the planet, scientists believe, is an extremely dense core of iron and nickel, possibly surrounded by a layer of hydrogen.
The atmosphere of Jupiter has a thickness of thousands of kilometers, and the highest clouds in it, consisting mainly of hydrogen and helium, create colorful stripes that surround the planet.
By the way, Jupiter is considered the fastest rotating planet in the entire solar system, which in itself is unbelievable if you take into account its huge mass.
9. Auroras on Jupiter
It turns out that auroras can occur not only on Earth. In fact, the Hubble Space Telescope recently captured these beautiful auroras on the surface of a gas planet.
Auroras on Jupiter are much larger than on our planet, and much more mobile. In addition, oddly enough, they never stop there.
8. The rise of Jupiter
Until there are several theories about the formation of Jupiter. The first theory is that planet descended from an ice core weighing about 10 times the weight of the Earth, capable of attracting and storing gas protosolar nebula.
Another theory is that Jupiter formed as a result of direct gravitational collapse.
By the way, Jupiter was the supreme god in Roman mythology, and in 2014 he was called the brightest "star" shining in the night sky. If you want to independently enjoy the view of this mysterious planet with a telescope, you will definitely notice that it dominates the eastern sky at the beginning of the day: at the end of March, the position of Jupiter at dusk will be southern and high.
Before tracking this planet with a telescope, take binoculars. If it is of good quality and magnifies at least seven times (for example, 7 × 35 or 7 × 50), you will see Jupiter in the form of a small white disk.
Look carefully at both sides of Jupiter’s disk: do you see a line of three or four tiny stars? Each of them is a satellite of Jupiter the size of our own moon. They look small and dull, just because they are about 2000 times farther from us.
7. Mass is 2.5 times larger than all the planets of the solar system combined
The mass of Jupiter (about 1900 x 10 ^ 27 kg) is excessively large compared to any other planet in the solar system. It is 318 times larger than the mass of the Earth, and even if we add together all the masses of the remaining planets in our system, it will still be approximately 2.5 times less than the total mass of Jupiter.
This planet, according to astronomers, exists for about 4.5 billion years - almost as much as the sun. It is believed that this is the first planet formed in the solar system.
We know that the diameter of Jupiter is about 143,000 kilometers and that it rotates on average at a distance of about 778.3 million kilometers from the Sun. This means that the fifth planet of the solar system is approximately 1300 times larger than the Earth.
6. The mysterious red spot of Jupiter
The Big Red Spot, as astronomers call it, is the largest anticyclonic whirlwind on Jupiter and one of the phenomena that fascinate scientists from all over the world.
It was discovered in the 17th century by Robert Hook, and to this day the spot continues to rotate non-stop, like a huge tornado. In fact, endless hurricanes on the surface of Jupiter can be as large as, for example, Earth.
According to astronomers, the Great Red Spot was formed about 350 years ago.
5. Clouds of Jupiter
The clouds of Jupiter, first of all, are a thin layer with a thickness of only 50 km. They are formed from ammonium crystals, which, absorbing sunlight, take a beautiful “color”. Under the clouds there is only hydrogen and helium.
4. Jupiter radiation
The reason we usually see the rest of the planets in the solar system is because the sun emits a large amount of radiation, and this makes all the bodies in this space glow.
Nevertheless, Jupiter also emits its own radiation. Scientists believe that this planet periodically shrinks, so it emits a lot of gravitational energy.
3. Has 63 satellites
Earth has only one natural satellite - the moon. Jupiter has 63 larger or smaller satellites. Four of them are Galilean satellites, since they were discovered more than 400 years ago by Galileo Galilei (Io, Ganymede, Europe and Callisto). In fact, they can even be seen with low-power telescopes from Earth.
Not all of these cosmic bodies have the same origin - some of them are asteroids attracted by gravity, while others arose during the formation of the solar system.
2. The planet has rings
We are used to thinking that the only planet in the solar system around which there are rings is Saturn. Well, this popular belief is false: Jupiter also has rings, only they are very difficult to observe. They are the result of a collision of meteorites with the satellites of the giant planet.
Jupiter is characterized by the presence of an important ring system, which was discovered by the Voyager 1 probe in March 1979. Its main ring has a width of about 6400 km and a vertical thickness of less than ten kilometers. The rings are divided into internal, called the halo, intermediate and external, which are the faintest, largest.
It is believed that the main ring of Jupiter may consist of fragments from the satellites Adrastea and Metis.
1. How many visits have we made to Jupiter?
Scientists sent seven missions to Jupiterstarting with the Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 in 1973 and 1974 respectively. Then, in 1979, the missions of Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 visited the planet. They managed to draw many conclusions with descriptions of the ring system that was seen on this planet.
Only in 1995 did the Galileo mission go to Jupiter, although at that time there were some problems with the transfer of information and data to Earth. Subsequently, the Cassini / Huygens space mission conducted a long-range flight in 2000.
These space expeditions were aerial studies with overflights, from which the most complete information about the structure of this planet was obtained. The last mission to Jupiter was launched by NASA in 2007.
There is an assumption that other missions will soon appear that will continue to provide data on the planet Jupiter - one of the most unique and curious in the entire solar system.