Jupiter

Overview

• Jupiter is the largest planet in our Solar System
• It has the shortest day of any planet in the Solar System - 10 Hours
• Jupiter has more than 75 moons but the 4 main moons are named Ganymede, Callisto, Europa and Io
• Jupiter also has rings that orbit around it but they are quite faint and hard to see with convential telescopes

Size and Distances

• Jupiter is 484 million miles or 778 million kilometres from the Sun
• With a diameter of 88695 miles or 142800 kilometres you could fit 1300 Earths inside the planet
• It is closest to Earth it is 365 million or 588 million kilometres away
• Jupiter's mass is 2.5 times that all the other planets in the Solar System combined

Composition

• Jupiter is a Gas Giant and has no surface like the inner rocky planets
• The planet is made up of colourful swirling gases and liquids
• Jupiter's Gravitational pull is so immense that it "cleans up" our Solar System of a lot of Asteroids and Coments
• Jupiter has a unique Great Red Spot which is a giant spinning storm 4 times the size of Earth

Temperature and Atmosphere

• Like the Sun, Jupiter is mostly Hyrdogen and Helium
• However the average temperature on Jupiter - 145 degrees celsius
• The clouds are probably made up of ammonia ice and cyrstals
• The pressure is so great inside Jupiter that gas becomes liquid