JUPITER
CLASSIFIED INFORMATION
Why is Jupiter sometimes called a Gas Giant?
I hear Jupiter has storms like here on Earth, is this true?
Why is Jupiter sometimes called a Gas Giant?
Jupiter is sometimes called a Gas Giant because thats what it is, a giant ball of gas. Jupiter is part of a organization of planets called the Gas Giants. These planets consist of Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus. But there is a fact that the planets is not ENTIRELY gas, it is known that the planet itself has a rocky core. The core of Jupiter is known to be 20 times greater than the entire planet of Earth. The percentage of the rocky core to the rest of the planet is very small. Jupiter is very large indeed, so large that it consists of around 70 percent of the total mass of the solar system. It dwarfs all other planets in size and mass. A good part of Jupiterıs mass is itıs atmosphere, which is an 800-mile (1,280-km) thick layer covering the planet. Helium, hydrogen, water, and ammonia ice crystals form its beautifully sculpted clouds: methane, ammonia, ethane and acetylene.
I hear Jupiter has storms like here on Earth, is this true?
Yes, this is a fact. Jupiter has storms that are so powerful, create so much electricity, and last so long it is amazing. Tremendous electrical storms often rage in the jovian atmoshere producing many bolts of lightning, which have been imaged by spacecraft passing over the night side of the planet. The storms only occur above certain regions whose positions seem to be influenced by the moon Io and the storms produce very intense radio wave emmissions.
The Big Red Spot is a large swirling bundle of clouds that looks like a hurricane, which makes it the biggest storm in the Solar System. The soeeds of the winds can be as powerful as 310 miles per hour (500 km an hour). The spot itself is much colder than its surroundings (Brrrrr). The spot is about half the size of what it was a century ago because of how it swirls and picks up material around it aand drops it off at places next to it, which also decreases its size.The Big Red Spot has been causing havoc for at least 300 years. It is so big two Earths could fit inside of it!
STATISITICS
Average distance from the sun. . . . . . . . . . 483,000,000 miles (778,000,000 km)
Average Temperature. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . -240 degrees F (-150 degrees C)
Diameter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88,732 miles ( 142,796 km)
Moons. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . more than 16 including the Galilean Moons (Io, Europa, Ganymade,Callisto)
Click Here To go Back to the Space Station And choose another planet.