Welcome to our new post! In this article, I will present to you some curiosities about the planet Jupiter. Get ready to learn amazing things about the fifth planet of our solar system, and amaze your friends with this interesting data.
Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system, being 11 times larger than Earth, yet less dense than our planet. However, it isn't massive enough to start burning, even though it resembles a star. It has been known since ancient times, as advanced telescopes aren't necessary to observe it.
Mythology
The planet was named after the Roman god Jupiter, equivalent to Zeus in Greek mythology.
It has various swirling clouds. The Great Red Spot is a storm that has been raging on this planet for hundreds of years. This storm is larger than Earth. The Little Red Spot is more recent and emerged from the fusion of three smaller ovals, being about half the size of the Great Red Spot. In addition to this storm, the planet also has a dozen other strong winds that can reach speeds of up to 539 kilometers per hour.
It also has several cyclone storms at its poles, 8 at the North Pole and 5 at the South Pole. Five years later, these cyclones are in the same position, which is why they are considered an extremely resilient atmospheric phenomenon. These cyclones interact with each other, but the cyclones at the center bring them back to their position, meaning they oscillate in a state of equilibrium.
As it's a gaseous planet, it doesn't have a solid surface, but it might have a solid core about the size of Earth. It hasn't been confirmed yet whether it has a solid core or a super-hot, dense, thick liquid.
It is primarily composed of gasses: hydrogen and helium, similar to the Sun. In the deeper parts of the atmosphere, the temperature and pressure increase, causing hydrogen to exist in liquid form. It has so much liquid hydrogen that it's considered the planet with the largest ocean in our entire solar system.
Scientists believe that near the center of the planet, the pressure is so great that it could expel electrons from the hydrogen ions, turning the liquid into an electrical conductor like metal.
Did you know that Jupiter also has rings? They can't be seen very well because they are too faint and made of dust. It's thought that these rings formed from the collision between meteorites and the moons closest to the planet.
The swirls and stripes we see on the planet are icy clouds of ammonia and water. The clouds on this planet aren't all white like those on Earth, but can be colored: red, brown, yellow, or white.
The atmosphere of this planet is very dense. A day on Jupiter is more than twice as short as one on Earth, lasting 10 hours. It also has the shortest day in our entire solar system. However, the years are much longer; a year on Jupiter is 11.8 years on Earth.
Around Jupiter, 80 moons have been observed. Due to the large number of moons, it resembles a miniature solar system. Of the 80 moons, the four largest are Europa, Io, Callisto, and Ganymede, discovered by Galileo Galilei in 1610. Some of the moons still don't have names.
Io is the most volcanically active body in our solar system. Ganymede is the largest moon in our solar system, even larger than Mercury. It lies between Mars and Saturn.
Various orbiters, probes, and spacecraft have managed to investigate this planet, including Voyager 1 and 2, Pioneer 10 and 11, Cassini, Juno, and New Horizons.
It's thought that the existence of life on Jupiter wouldn't be possible due to the planet's extreme and volatile conditions. An interesting fact, however, is that some of its moons could potentially support it.
Europa is the most promising for life out of all the sites in our solar system. Evidence has been observed that it has a vast ocean beneath its icy crust, where conditions suitable for life could exist.
With an inclination of only 13 degrees, it doesn't have as extreme seasons as other planets. This planet formed about 4.5 billion years ago when gravity attracted gasses and dust.
Being a gaseous planet formed by swirls of gasses and liquids, there is no surface for a spacecraft to land on to investigate the planet. The swirls, temperature, and pressure also don't allow a spacecraft to fly unscathed.
The sky of this planet reaches 71 kilometers and has 3 layers of clouds. The outermost part is made of ammonia ice. The middle layer contains crystals of ammonium hydrosulfide. The deepest portion is composed of frozen water and vapor. The thick, vividly colored layers are made of sulfur and phosphorus.
Jupiter's magnetosphere extends from 1 to 3 million kilometers towards the Sun and 1 trillion kilometers towards Saturn. Jupiter's magnetic field is 16 to 54 times more powerful than Earth's and captures charged particles, accelerating them to high speeds, creating radiation that bombards the inner moons and spacecraft attempting to approach the planet.
In the planet's poles, incredible auroras caused by the magnetic field can also be observed.
In Jupiter's atmosphere, cells similar to the Ferrel cells have been found, which influence our climate on Earth. However, unlike Earth, where we have one in each hemisphere, Jupiter has 8.
One curiosity about this planet is that it's so large that if you add up the masses of all the other planets in our solar system, Jupiter would still surpass them, presenting a mass 2.48 times greater.
It's one of the outer planets, meaning it isn't located between Earth and the Sun. It takes 6 years to reach Jupiter from Earth.
Curiosities about the space
📚 Data source:
https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/all-about-jupiter/sp/
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/jupiter/overview/
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/jupiter/in-depth/
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%BApiter_(planeta)
https://www.muyinteresante.es/ciencia/10205.html
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/pia24965-atmospheric-circulation-cells-on-earth-and-jupiter
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