Pioneer Voyager 1000
Jupiter Planet Facts: Jupiter Planet Information
Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system, which is situated between the planets of Mars and Saturn. Its diameter is 88,846 miles (142,984 kilometers), more than 11 times that of Earth, and about one-tenth that of the sun. After the Venus, Jupiter is the second brightest planet. The wonderful planet contains swirling clouds of gases in a banded structure. It is visited by 8 spacecraft, Pioneer 10, Pioneer 11, Voyager 1 and 2, Galileo, Ulysses, Cassini and New Horizons. Learn about Jupiter facts and information here.
- Jupiter is big! Its diameter is 88,846 miles across. It is big enough to fit 1000 Earths inside it.
- Jupiter is radiating 1.9 times the heat it receives from the Sun. This means it is generating its own heat. This is caused by the continual contraction of Jupiter that has been going on since its formation, as well as diffusive separation of gases, radionuclide and other sources.
- Jupiter is 5 times farther from the Sun than Earth is. The Earth is one “astronomical unit” from the Sun, that is, about 93,000,000 miles. Jupiter is, therefore, 5 astronomical units from the Sun, specifically; it is 483,700,000 miles from the Sun. The Sun would look much smaller at Jupiter than it does to us here on Earth.
- The temperature in the cloud tops of Jupiter is about -230 degrees Fahrenheit.
- The amount of helium in Jupiter is very similar to that in the Sun.
- Jupiter’s volume is large enough to contain 1,300 planets the size of Earth.
- Jupiter rotates faster than any planet in the Solar System.
- It rotates so quickly that the days are only 10 hours long.
- But it takes 12 Earth years for Jupiter to complete an orbit around the sun.
- The great red spot on Jupiter is a storm that has been going on for over 300 years.
- You can fit 100 Earths into Jupiter’s great red spot.
- Jupiter has the biggest moon in the Solar System, Ganymede. It is even bigger than Mercury and Pluto.
- Jupiter has a ring just like Saturn and Uranus.
- The Planet has over 60 known satellites (moons) but most of them are extremely small and faint.
- Jupiter is covered by an ocean of hydrogen with a sludge-like consistency.
- Unlike other planets, Jupiter sends out a strong radio radiation that can be detected on Earth.
- In 1994, pieces of a comet called shoemaker-Levy 9 broke apart and crashed into Jupiter. This left patches in Jupiter’s atmosphere that lasted for many months.
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