Solar System Exploration: Planet Selector: Jupiter

PLANET SELECTOR

ABOUT JUPITER

Jupiter is the largest of the planets in the solar system. Made of hydrogen and helium, Jupiter is the largest of four 'gas giant' planets in the outer solar system. Jupiter's spectacular storms include the Great Red Spot, a 300-year old hurricane, and a more recent discovery, another massive colliding storm known as Red Spot Jr.
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Featured Mission: Galileo
Jupiter is the largest of the planets in the solar system. A huge gaseous sphere of mostly hydrogen and helium, Jupiter is the largest of four 'gas giant' planets that dominate the outer solar system. Jupiter's spectacular storms include the Great Red Spot, a more than 300-year old hurricane, and a more recent discovery, another massive colliding storm known as Red Spot Jr.
Read More About Galileo >>

VITAL STATISTICS

Average Distance from Sun:	778,412,020 km (483,682,810 miles)
Diameter:	139,822 km (86,881 miles)
Volume:	1,316 x Earth's
Mass:	1,898,600,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 kg (317.8 x Earth's)
Length of Day:	9.9 Earth hours
Length of Year:	11.86 Earth years
Known Moons:	63

SIZE & DISTANCE

If the Sun was as tall as a typical front door, Earth would be the size of a nickel - and Jupiter would be about as big as a basketball.

Average Distance from the Sun: 778,412,020 km (5.2 A.U.)

EXTREME SPACE

Jumpin' Jupiter
There are no rockets powerful enough to hurl a spacecraft into the outer solar system and beyond. In 1962, scientists calculated how to use Jupiter's intense gravity to hurl spacecraft into the farthest regions of the solar system. We've been traveling farther and faster ever since.

Storm of the Centuries
Jupiter's Great Red Spot is a hurricane-like storm so large that almost three Earths could fit across it. Jupiter's Great Red Spot is a hurricane-like storm that is at least 300 years old. Larger than three Earths, the Great Red Spot has recently been joined by Red Spot Junior, a slightly smaller storm that may collide with Great Red Spot in the future.

Mighty Moon
With a diameter of 5,262 km (3,270 miles) Jupiter's Ganymede is the largest moon in our solar system - bigger even than the planets Mercury and Pluto. If Ganymede orbited the Sun instead of Jupiter, it could easily be called a planet.

Hail to the King
Jupiter is by far the largest of the planets. If it were hollow, more than 1,300 Earths could fit inside. The giant planet contains two-thirds of all the planetary mass in the solar system and holds more than 60 moons in its gravitational grip.

Planet-Sized Pizza?
Jupiter's moon Io is the most volcanically active body in our solar system. Active volcanoes constantly spew material onto Io's surface. The moon's bizarre, blotted yellowish surface looks more like a pepperoni pizza than like the cratered surfaces of the other moons in our solar system.

The Hot Zone
Jupiter is not a people-friendly place. Radiation levels encountered by spacecraft visiting Jupiter are more than 1,000 times the lethal level for a human. Even heavily-shielded spacecraft like Galileo were damaged by the radiation.

TIMELINE

1610 - Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei discovers four moons orbiting Jupiter - Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto.

1973 - NASA's Pioneer 10 is the first spacecraft to reach Jupiter - flying by at a distance of 200,000 km (120,000 miles).

1979 - In flybys only four months apart, NASA's twin Voyager spacecraft discover Jupiter's faint rings, several new moons and volcanic activity on Jovian moon Io's surface.

1994 - Astronomers watch pieces of Comet P/Shoemaker-Levy 9 collide with Jupiter - the first major collision of two solar system objects ever observed.

1995 - NASA's Galileo spacecraft begins an extended tour of Jupiter by dropping an atmospheric probe into the giant planet's atmosphere.

2003 - Galileo impacts Jupiter. The spacecraft was deliberately crashed to avoid any potential contamination of Jupiter's moons, especially Europa.

SLIDE SHOW

Jupiter and Moon Io
Jupiter's Great Red Spot
Jupiter's Clouds
Jupiter's Aurora
Volcanic Explosion on Jupiter's Moon Io
Active Volcano on Jupiter's Moon Io
Jupiter's Moon Callisto
Jupiter's Moon Ganymede
Jupiter's Moon Europa
Looking Back at Jupiter

MOONS

Of Jupiter's 63 known moons, the four largest moons - the Galilean satellites - are as mysterious and intriguing as any planet. Io is the most volcanically active world in our solar system. There is strong evidence of an ocean under Europa's icy surface. Ganymede - bigger than Mercury and Pluto - is the largest moon in the solar system. And Callisto's battered, icy surface may date back to earliest days of our solar system. It is believed that other smaller moons will be discovered.