Profile:
Mass: 1,898,130,000,000,000,000 billion kg (317.83 x Earth)
Equatorial Diameter: 142,984 km
Polar Diameter: 133,709 km
Equatorial Circumference: 439,264 km
Known Moons: 67
Notable Moons: Io, Europa, Ganymede, & Callisto
Known Rings: 4
Orbit Distance: 778,340,821 km (5.20 Earth's Distance to the Sun)
Orbit Period: 4,332.82 Earth days (11.86 Earth years)
Surface Temperature: -108°C
Missions:
• Cassini (1997)
NASA/ESA Mission to Saturn via Jupiter
• Galileo Orbiter (1989)
NASA Mission to Jupiter
• Galileo Probe (1995)
NASA Mission to Jupiter
• Voyager 1 (1977)
NASA Mission to Jupiter and Saturn
• Voyager 2 (1977)
NASA Mission to Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and beyond
• Ulysses (1990)
NASA/ESA Mission to study the solar wind via Jupiter
• Pioneer 10 (1973)
NASA Jupiter flyby
• Pioneer 11 (1974)
NASA Jupiter flyby
The Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) on New Horizons has acquired six global maps of Jupiter. The high-resolution camera acquired each of six observation "sets" as a series of individual pictures taken one hour apart, covering a full 10-hour rotation of Jupiter. The LORRI team at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) reduced the sets to form six individual maps in a simple rectangular projection. The maps were then combined to make the movie.
Jupiter Information
Latest News About Jupiter
Venus and Jupiter Put on Cosmic Show
July 1, 2015
Venus and Jupiter pulled off a grand spectacle in the night sky.
Both bright planets appeared to glide closer together over the month of June in a conjunctionNASA called the "best backyard sky show of 2015."
The planets have been slowly getting closer to each other over the past few weeks. Tuesday night marked the culmination with both planets appearing one-third of a degree apart, giving them the appearance of a double star, according to NASA.
NASA Searches for Water on Jupiter’s Moon
June 19, 2015
Jupiter’s icy moon Europa, is covered in an ocean which has been estimated to contain more water than all of the oceans on Earth combined. The distant celestial body is considered to be one of the best targets in the Solar System for harboring extraterrestrial life. NASA is moving forward from concept review to development in the first mission the agency has planned to travel to the far-flung world.
Images from NASA's Cassini spacecraft reveal cloud structures and movements at different depths in the atmosphere around Jupiter's south pole. Image Credit & Copyright: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
Jupiter's Moons
10 Need-to-Know Things About Jupiter:
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If the sun were as tall as a typical front door, the Earth would be the size of a nickel and Jupiter would be about as big as a basketball.
Juno: Next generation Jupiter explorer
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Jupiter orbits our sun, a star. Jupiter is the fifth planet from the sun at a distance of about 778 million km (484 million miles) or 5.2 AU.
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One day on Jupiter takes about 10 hours (the time it takes for Jupiter to rotate or spin once). Jupiter makes a complete orbit around the sun (a year in Jovian time) in about 12 Earth years (4,333 Earth days).
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Jupiter is a gas-giant planet and therefore does not have a solid surface. However, it is predicted that Jupiter has an inner, solid core about the size of the Earth.
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Jupiter's atmosphere is made up mostly of hydrogen (H2) and helium (He).
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Jupiter has 50 known moons, with an additional 17 moons awaiting confirmation of their discovery -- that is a total of 67 moons.
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Jupiter has a faint ring system that was discovered in 1979 by the Voyager 1 mission.
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Many missions have visited Jupiter and its system of moons. The Juno mission will arrive at Jupiter in 2016.
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Jupiter cannot support life as we know it. However, some of Jupiter's moons have oceans underneath their crusts that might support life.
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Jupiter's Great Red Spot is a gigantic storm (bigger than Earth) that has been raging for hundreds of years.
The most massive planet in our solar system -- with dozens of moons and an enormous magnetic field -- Jupiter forms a kind of miniature solar system. It resembles a star in composition, but did not grow big enough to ignite. The planet's swirling cloud stripes are punctuated by massive storms such as the Great Red Spot, which has raged for hundreds of years.
Our solar system's ruling giant planet Jupiter and 3 of its 4 large Galilean moons are captured on January 24. Image Credit & Copyright: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team
With a total of 67 known moons — including four large moons known as the Galilean satellites — Jupiter almost qualifies as a solar system unto itself. Most of the moons of Jupiter are small, with about 50 of the satellites being less than 6.2 miles in diameter. In January 1610, Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei discovered four of Jupiter’s moons — now called Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. Galileo’s discovery was pivotal point in the history of astronomy as his observation revealed that not all celestial bodies revolved around the Earth. Until that time, Earth was thought to be the center of the universe.
To learn more about Jupiter's moons, click on the button below!
Our solar system's ruling giant planet Jupiter and 3 of its 4 large Galilean moons are captured on January 24. Image Credit & Copyright: NASA/JPL/DLR
Physical characteristics
Jupiter is the most massive planet in our solar system, more than twice as massive as all the other planets combined, and had it been about 80 times more massive, it would have actually become a star instead of a planet. Its atmosphere resembles that of the sun, made up mostly of hydrogen and helium, and with four large moons and many smaller moons in orbit around it, Jupiter by itself forms a kind of miniature solar system. All told, the immense volume of Jupiter could hold more than 1,300 Earths.
The most extraordinary feature on Jupiter is undoubtedly the Great Red Spot, a giant hurricane-like storm seen for more than 300 years. At its widest, the Great Red Spot is three times the diameter of the Earth, and its edge spins counterclockwise around its center at a speed of about 225 mph (360 kph). The color of the storm, which usually varies from brick red to slightly brown, may come from small amounts of sulfur and phosphorus in the ammonia crystals in Jupiter's clouds. The spot grows and shrinks over time, and every now and again, seems to fade entirely.
Research and Exploration
Seven missions have flown by Jupiter — Pioneer 10, Pioneer 11, Voyager 1, Voyager 2, Ulysses, Cassini and New Horizons — while another, NASA's Galileo, actually orbited the planet.
Pioneer 10 revealed how dangerous Jupiter's radiation belt is, while Pioneer 11 provided data on the Great Red Spot and close-up pictures of its polar region. Voyager 1 and 2 helped astronomers create the first detailed maps of the Galilean satellites, discovered Jupiter's rings, revealed sulfur volcanoes on Io, and saw lightning in Jupiter's clouds. Ulysses discovered the solar wind has a much greater impact on Jupiter's magnetosphere than before suggested. New Horizons took close-up pictures of Jupiter and its largest moons.
In 1995, Galileo sent a probe plunging towards Jupiter, making the first direct measurements of its atmosphere and measuring the amount of water and other chemicals there. When Galileo ran low on fuel, the craft was intentionally crashed into Jupiter's atmosphere to avoid any risk of it slamming into and contaminating Europa, which might have an ocean below its surface capable of supporting life.
Another spacecraft, named Juno, is heading toward Jupiter and will reach the planet in 2016. It will study Jupiter from a polar orbit to figure out how it and the rest of the solar system formed, which could shed light on how alien planetary systems might have developed.
