Jupiter
Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system. It has four planet-sized moons and a lot of other objects orbiting it. If it had become 80 times larger, it would have been a star not a planet. Jupiter has 4 main moons called Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. Altogether these moons are known as the Galilean satellites. The moon Io is the most volcanically active volcano in our solar system. Jupiter appears to be nice and colorful. Most of the visible clouds are made of ammonia. Water is beneath the icy surface and can sometimes be seen through the clouds. The stripes that you can see on the surface are caused by strong east to west winds within the atmosphere. There are also storms in these stripes. These storms can last for over 300 years. One of the most famous storms is called “The Great Red Spot”. It is a giant spinning storm that has been observed for over 300 years now.
Jupiter's Atmosphere
The composition of Jupiter’s atmosphere is like the other gas giants, made up of helium and hydrogen. Jupiter’s magnetic field is huge and is nearly 20,000 times as powerful as Earth’s. In 1979 Jupiter’s rings were discovered. They have a flattened main ring and then an inner cloud ring called “The Halo”. Both main and inner rings are made up of small dark particles. A 3rd ring known as the Gossamer Ring actually has 3 rings of small microscopic debris from Amalthea, Thebe, and Adrastea which are small moons that got broken up and destroyed, probably by asteroids. The rings are only visible when backlit by the sun.
Statistics
Jupiter is 483,682,810 miles away from the sun.
One year on Jupiter is 4331 days
Length of a day 9hrs 56min
Average temperature is -234˚F
One year on Jupiter is 4331 days
Length of a day 9hrs 56min
Average temperature is -234˚F
Resources
http://xdem.free.fr/2006/03/la-tche-rouge-junior-de-jupiter.html
http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/space/solar-system/jupiter-article/
http://xdem.free.fr/2006/03/la-tche-rouge-junior-de-jupiter.html
http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/space/solar-system/jupiter-article/