GENERAL DESCRIPTION
| The fifth planet from the sun, Jupiter is the largest of all the planets in our Solar System. It is a gaseous, not terrestrial planet. As the Solar System was being formed 4.5 billion years ago, Jupiter may have had the makings of becoming a star. It was 10 times its present diameter. Jupiter has the most intensive magnetic field of any planet-about five times the strength of the earth's field. When Pioneer 10, the American Jupiter probe, passed through the planet's radiation belt, the probe was exposed to radiation level 400 times the lethal dose for humans. |