"For a planet to have breathable air, wouldn’t have to have abundant plant life?"
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Question
What are the skies of Jupiter like?
Stormy! Jupiter is swept by over a dozen prevailing winds, some reaching up to 335 miles an hour at the equator! The gas planet is believed to have three distinct cloud layers in its “skies” that, taken together, are about 1000 km deep. The top cloud is probably made of ammonia ice while the middle layer is likely made of ammonium-hydrogen sulfide crystals. The inner third layer may be of water ice and vapor. The vivid colors you see in thick bands across the Jovian surface may be attributable to plumes of sulfur and phosphorus-containing gases (as well as some organic substances) rising from the planet’s warmer interior. One of the most amazing features of Jupiter’s atmosphere is the “Great Red Spot,” a giant storm that has been churning since at least 1630 when it was first observed by Robert Hooke. The Great Red Spot, a counterclockwise spinning vortex, is so large that it could swallow up the entire earth!
June 3, 2002
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