Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and by far the largest.
Jupiter is more
than twice as
massive as
all
the other planets combined (318 times Earth).
orbit: 778,330,000 km (5.20 AU) from Sun
diameter: 142,984 km (equatorial)
mass: 1.900e27 kg
Jupiter (a.k.a. Jove; Greek Zeus) was the King of the Gods, the ruler of Olympus and the patron of the Roman state. Zeus was the son of Cronus (Saturn).
Jupiter is the fourth brightest object in the sky (after the Sun, the Moon and Venus; at some times Mars is also brighter). It has been known since prehistoric times. Galileo's discovery, in 1610, of Jupiter's four large moons Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto (now known as the Galilean moons) was the first discovery of a center of motion not apparently centered on the Earth. It was a major point in favor of Copernicus's heliocentric theory of the motions of the planets; Galileo's outspoken support of the Copernican theory got him arrested by the Inquisition. He was forced to recant his beliefs and was imprisoned for the rest of his life.
Jupiter was first visited by Pioneer 10 in 1973 and later by Pioneer 11, Voyager 1, Voyager 2 and Ulysses. The spacecraft Galileo is currently in orbit around Jupiter and will be sending back data for at least the next two years.
The gas planets do not have solid surfaces, their gaseous material simply gets denser with depth (the radii and diameters quoted for the planets are for levels corresponding to a pressure of 1 atmosphere). What we see when looking at these planets is the tops of clouds high in their atmospheres (slightly above the 1 atmosphere level).
Jupiter is about 90% hydrogen and 10% helium (by numbers of atoms, 75/25% by mass) with traces of methane, water, ammonia and "rock". This is very close to the composition of the primordial Solar Nebula from which the entire solar system was formed. Saturn has a similar composition, but Uranus and Neptune have much less hydrogen and helium.
Our knowledge of the interior of Jupiter (and the other gas planets) is highly indirect and likely to remain so for some time. (The data from Galileo's atmospheric probe goes down only about 150 km below the cloud tops.)
Jupiter probably has a core of rocky material amounting to something like 10 to 15 Earth-masses.
Above the core lies the main
bulk of the planet in
the form of liquid
metallic hydrogen.
This exotic
form of the most common of
elements is
possible only at pressures exceeding 4 million
bars, as is the
case in the interior
of
Jupiter (and Saturn). Liquid metallic hydrogen consists of ionized
protons
and
electrons (like the interior of the Sun but at a far lower
temperature). At
the temperature and pressure of
Jupiter's interior
hydrogen is a liquid, not a
gas.
It is an electrical conductor and the source of
Jupiter's
magnetic field.
This
layer probably also contains some helium
and traces of various "ices".
The outermost layer is composed primarily
of ordinary molecular hydrogen
and helium which
is liquid
in the
interior and gaseous further out. The
atmosphere we
see is just the very top of this deep layer.
Water, carbon
dioxide, methane and other simple molecules
are also present in tiny amounts.
Three distinct layers of clouds
are believed to exist consisting of ammonia
ice,
ammonium
hydrosulfide and a mixture of ice and water. However,
the
preliminary
results
from the Galileo probe show only faint indications of clouds
(one instrument
seems to have detected the topmost layer while another may
have
seen the second).
But the probe's entry point (left) was unusual --
Earth-
based telescopic observations
and more
recent
observations
by the Galileo
orbiter suggest that the probe entry site
may well have been one of the
warmest and least cloudy areas on
Jupiter at that time.
Data
from the Galileo atmospheric probe also indicate that there is
much
less water than expected. The
expectation was that Jupiter's
atmosphere would
contain about twice the amount of oxygen (combined
with
the abundant
hydrogen to make water) as the Sun. But it now appears that
the actual
concentration
much less than the Sun's.
Also surprising was the high
temperature and
density of the uppermost parts of
the atmosphere.
Jupiter and the other gas planets have
high velocity winds which are
confined in wide
bands of
latitude. The winds blow in opposite directions in
adjacent bands.
Slight chemical
and temperature differences between these
bands are responsible for the colored
bands
that dominate the planet's
appearance.
The light colored bands are called zones; the dark
ones belts.
The
bands have been known
for some time on Jupiter, but the
complex
vortices in
the boundary regions between the bands were
first seen by Voyager.
The
data
from the Galileo probe indicate that the winds are even
faster than expected
(more than 400 mph)
and extend down into as far as
the probe was able to
observe;
they may extend down thousands of
kilometers into the interior.
upiter's atmosphere was also found to be quite turbulent.
This indicates that
Jupiter's winds are driven in large part by
its internal heat rather than from
solar input as on Earth.
The vivid colors seen in Jupiter's clouds are probably the result of
subtle
chemical reactions of the
trace elements in Jupiter's
atmosphere, perhaps
involving sulfur whose compounds take on a wide
variety
of colors, but the
details are unknown.
The colors correlate with the cloud's
altitude: blue lowest, followed
by
browns and whites, with reds
highest. Sometimes we see the lower
layers
through holes in the upper ones.
The Great Red Spot (GRS)
has been seen by Earthly observers for more
than 300
years
(its discovery is usually attributed to Cassini,
or Robert Hooke
in the 17th century).
The GRS is an oval about 12,000 by 25,000 km, big
enough to hold two Earths.
Other
smaller but similar spots have been known
for decades.
Infrared observations and the
direction of its rotation indicate that
the GRS is a high-pressure region whose cloud tops
are significantly
higher and
colder than the surrounding regions.
Similar structures have been seen on
Saturn and
Neptune.
It is not known how such structures can persist for so
long.
Jupiter radiates more energy into space than it receives
from the Sun.
The
interior of Jupiter is
hot: the
core is probably about 20,000 K.
The heat is
generated
by the Kelvin-Helmholtz mechanism, the slow
gravitational
compression
Jupiter is just about as large in diameter as a gas planet can be. If more material were to be added, it would be compressed by gravity such that the overall radius would increase only slightly. A star can be larger only because of its internal (nuclear) heat source. (But Jupiter would have to be at least 80 times more massive to become a star.)
Jupiter has a huge magnetic field, much stronger than Earth's. Its magnetosphere extends more than 650 million km (past the orbit of Saturn!). (Note that Jupiter's magnetosphere is far from spherical -- it extends "only" a few million kilometers in the direction toward the Sun.) Jupiter's moons therefore lie within its magnetosphere, a fact which may partially explain some of the activity on Io. Unfortunately for future space travelers and of real concern to the designers of the Voyager and Galileo spacecraft, the environment near Jupiter contains high levels of energetic particles trapped by Jupiter's magnetic field. This "radiation" is similar to, but much more intense than, that found within Earth's Van Allen belts. It would be immediately fatal to an unprotected human being. The Galileo atmospheric probe discovered a new intense radiation belt between Jupiter's ring and the uppermost atmospheric layers. This new belt is approximately 10 times as strong as Earth's Van Allen radiation belts. Surprisingly, this new belt was also found to contain high energy helium ions of unknown origin.
Jupiter has faint rings like Saturn's, but much smaller (right). They were totally unexpected and were only discovered when two of the Voyager 1 scientists insisted that after traveling 1 billion km it was at least worth a quick look to see if any rings might be present. Everyone else thought that the chance of finding anything was nil, but there they were. It was a major coup. They have since been imaged in the infra-red from ground-based telescopes.
Unlike Saturn's, Jupiter's rings are dark (albedo about .05). They're probably composed of very small grains of rocky material.
Particles in Jupiter's rings probably don't stay there for long (due to atmospheric and magnetic drag). Therefore, if the rings are permanent features, they must be continuously resupplied. The small satellites Metis and Adrastea, which orbit within the rings, are the obvious candidate sources.
In July 1994, Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 collided with Jupiter with spectacular results (left). The effects were clearly visible even with amateur telescopes. The debris from the collision was visible for nearly a year afterward with HST.
When it is in the nighttime sky, Jupiter is often the brightest "star" in the sky (it is second only to Venus, which is seldom visible in a dark sky). The four Galilean moons are easily visible with binoculars; a few bands and the Great Red Spot can be seen with a small astronomical telescope. Mike Harvey's planet finder charts show the current position of Jupiter (and the other planets) in the sky. More detailed and customized charts can be created with a planetarium program such as Starry Night.
Distance Radius Mass Satellite (000 km) (km) (kg) Discoverer Date --------- -------- ------ ------- ---------- ----- Metis 128 20 9.56e16 Synnott 1979 Adrastea 129 10 1.91e16 Jewitt 1979 Amalthea 181 98 7.17e18 Barnard 1892 Thebe 222 50 7.77e17 Synnott 1979 Io 422 1815 8.94e22 Galileo 1610 Europa 671 1569 4.80e22 Galileo 1610 Ganymede 1070 2631 1.48e23 Galileo 1610 Callisto 1883 2400 1.08e23 Galileo 1610 Leda 11094 8 5.68e15 Kowal 1974 Himalia 11480 93 9.56e18 Perrine 1904 Lysithea 11720 18 7.77e16 Nicholson 1938 Elara 11737 38 7.77e17 Perrine 1905 Ananke 21200 15 3.82e16 Nicholson 1951 Carme 22600 20 9.56e16 Nicholson 1938 Pasiphae 23500 25 1.91e17 Melotte 1908 Sinope 23700 18 7.77e16 Nicholson 1914Values for the smaller moons are approximate.
Distance Width Mass Ring (km) (km) (kg) ---- -------- ----- ------ Halo 100000 22800 ? Main 122800 6400 1e13 Gossamer 129200 850000 ?(distance is from Jupiter's center to the ring's inner edge)
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