| Jupiter is the fifth planet from the sun and
the largest planet in our solar system. Jupiter is beyond the asteroid belt. It is
the brightest planet we can see except for Venus. Sirius is the brightest star, but
Jupiter is 3 times brighter! Jupiter is 484 million miles from the sun. It takes 11.9
Earth years to go around the sun. It makes a revolution in 9.8 hours. Jupiter is a dense
ball of gas. Spaceships cannot land on the planet. It would be like landing on a cloud.
Jupiter's mass is about 318 times the mass of Earth. Its diameter is about 11.2 times the
diameter of Earth. The gravitational force in Jupiter's atmosphere is 2.5 times the
gravitational force on Earth. |
Big storms often appear suddenly on Jupiter's surface. Its
storms are different from Earth's storms. In July l994, pieces of a large
comet slammed into Jupiter. The pieces exploded when they hit. They left large dark spots
on the planet. Earth's storms are caused by solar heating of the atmosphere but Jupiter's
storms are caused by gas bubbling to the surface. The Great Red Spot is Jupiter's most
famous storm. It is a giant storm that rages all the time. It has been storming
since the first telescope discovered it hundreds of years ago. The cause of the Great Red
Spot is still unknown. Could the Great Spot be a whirlpool? What do you think? (Answer
this in the quiz.) |
Jupiter
