INTERSETED FACTS ABOUT JUPITER

MAJOR FACTS ABOUT JUPITER 

Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, while being slightly less than one-thousandth the mass of the sun.

Jupiter is the third brightest natural object in the Earth's night sky after the Moon and Venus, and it has been observed since prehistoric times. It was named after Jupiter, the chief deity of ancient Roman religion.

Intersting Facts About Jupiter

Jupiter is primarily composed of hydrogen, but helium constitutes one-quarter of its mass and one-tenth of its volume. It probably has a rocky core of heavier elements, but (like the Solar System's other giant planets) lacks a well-defined solid surface. The ongoing contraction of Jupiter's interior generates more heat than the planet receives from the Sun. Because of its rapid rotation, the planet's shape is an oblate spheroid, having a slight but noticeable bulgearound the equator. The outer atmosphere is divided into a series of latitudinal bands, with turbulence and storms along their interacting boundaries. A prominent result of this is the Great Red Spot, a giant storm which has been observed since at least 1831.

Jupiter is surrounded by a faint planetary ring system and a powerful magnetosphere. The planet's magnetic tail is nearly 800 million kilometres (5.3 astronomical units; 500 million miles) long, covering nearly the entire distance to Saturn's orbit. Jupiter has 82 known moons and likely many more, including the four large moons discovered by Galileo Galilei in 1610: Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. Io and Europa are about the size of Earth's Moon, while Ganymede is larger, and Callisto is almost the size of the planet Mercury.

Jupiter

More information about Jupiter 

Distance from Sun: 778.5 million km

Orbital period: 12 years

Radius: 69,911 km

Surface area: 61.42 billion km²

Mass: 1.898 × 10^27 kg (317.8 M⊕)

Coordinates: RA 0h 6m 43s | Dec -0° 39′ 32″