Aug 28, 2020
Updated: Jan 16, 2021
Jupiter, the fifth planet from the Sun, is a lifesaver for us. Jupiter contains a massive size that pulls many comets and asteroids coming towards Earth. There are many amazing facts to grasp about Jupiter. Let's explore the 12 most significant and interesting facts about the planet.
Jupiter's mass is more than two and a half times the mass of all the other planets of the solar system combined. Jupiter has such an oversized volume that about 1,300 Earths can fit inside it.
Like Earth and other inner planets, you can not stand on the surface of
Jupiter because Jupiter's surface is a worldwide ocean of helium and
hydrogen gases.
The great red spot is a spiraling collection of clouds with wind speeds that reaches up to 400 miles per hour. It's been there for the last 300 years and according to scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), it may disappear in the next 20 years.
After the discovery of 20 new moons around Saturn in 2019, Jupiter comes down to the second number in terms of having most moons. Jupiter's largest moon Ganymede is the largest moon of our solar system. It is even larger than the planet Mercury.
The four largest moons of Jupiter; Ganymede, Callisto, Io, and Europa were the first moons to be discovered around any other planet. These four moons are also known as The Galilean Moons.
Jupiter was the first planet to form, so it attracted most of the asteroids and comets onto its own surface, which would have increased the sizes of the other planets.
Jupiter has a massive gravity that attracts comets and asteroids onto Jupiter's own surface, preventing them from crashing onto inner planets like Earth.
This includes Pioneer 10, Pioneer 11, Voyager 2, Voyager 1, Galileo, Ulysses, Cassini, and Juno.
The short days of Jupiter is because of its fast rotation on its axis. Jupiter has the fastest rotation compared to the other planets. It takes just 9 hr and 55 mins to complete one rotation on its axis.
All the gaseous planets (Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune) have a ring system. But, unlike Saturn, their ring system is faint.
Jupiter's large size and its reflective clouds are responsible for its brightness in the sky. On the other hand, Jupiter is much closer to stars.
Jupiter has about 14 times stronger magnetic field than Earth and it stretches about 12 million miles from east to west, almost 15 times the width of the Sun.