The Solar System: Jupiter

Jupiter


     Jupiter, the fifth planet from the sun, is the biggest planet in our solar system, in fact, it's 381 times the size of Earth. It is so big that if we combined all of the other planets, they could fit inside of Jupiter. Jupiter is made up of 90% hydrogen, making scientists think that its core is hotter than the surface of the sun.
     In the picture above, you can see that Jupiter has stripes. These stripes are caused by Jupiter's extremely fast rotation making the ice cold clouds group into light and dark stripes.
     Scientists think that there is a possibility that the sixth known moon from Jupiter, Europa, might contain some type of biological life. Scientists know that Europa contains frozen water, but it could also contain the largest ocean in our solar system (more information about Europa here). Since 1996, the Galileo orbiter has passed by Europa a couple of times, taking many pictures and measurements of Europa.
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