Jupiter! The Gassy planet

For a long time people believed that Jupiter was formed from condensation of the primordial solar nebula, because of the high concentration of hydrogen and the planets size itself.

Today we think that a solid core about the size of 10 earths was pressed together and then began attracting gasses.

visual magnitude at mean opposition

−2.70

mean synodic period*

398.88 Earth days

mean orbital velocity

13.1 km/sec

equatorial radius**

71,492 km

polar radius**

66,854 km

mass

18.98 × 1026 kg

mean density

1.33 g/cm3

gravity**

2,479 cm/sec2

escape velocity

60.2 km/sec

rotation periods

System I (±10° from equator)

9 hr 50 min 30 sec

System II (higher latitudes)

9 hr 55 min 41 sec

System III (magnetic field)

9 hr 55 min 29 sec

inclination of equator to orbit

3.1°

dimensions of Great Red Spot

20,000 × 12,000 km

magnetic field strength at equator

4.3 gauss

number of known moons

66

planetary ring system

1 main ring;

3 less-dense components

Chemical differences in cloud composition, which astronomers presume to be the cause of the variations in colour, evidently accompany the vertical and horizontal segregation of the cloud systems.

Galileo regarded these four moons existence as a fundamental argument in favour of the Copernican model of the solar system, in which the planets orbit the Sun. Their orbits around Jupiter were in flagrant violation of the Ptolemaic system, in which all celestial objects must move around Earth.

Jupiter!

History of a Gassy planet

No one can be credited with the discovery of Jupiter, it is one of the plants that have been visible for throught human history (along with Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, and at times Uranus)

It is now theorized, based on current models,

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Estimated to be around 4.5 Billion years old (all of our planets are), Jupiter is largest planet in our solar system.

The Gassy Planet

As of yet, there are no released future plans for exploration of Jupiter or any of it moons; however with the inticing conditions of Europa, Scientists and writters alike fantasize and concpetualize about the future exploration of said moon. qith some sort of Spaceship/drill/deepsea bathasphere

The Galileo (1989), Ulysses (1990), cassini (1997), and Juno (2011) all launched with the sole purpose of stuyding all of the different aspects of Jupiter and its Moons. As of Today Juno (which is still enroute to Jupiter) and the Ulysses are still in use in space.

Man's missions

As of yet NASA has been the only sapce agencey to put missions twords jupiter. The first being the "Pioneer10" Spacecraft to survive the space radiation and make it on a flyby past Jupiter into the Outer Belt. It was followed the next day by the "Pioneer 11"

In 1979 The "Voyager" 1 and 2 space probes went up. Probe one's purpose: to study Jupiter and Saturn.

Probe Two was to study Jupiter's atmosphere and it's moons.

Basic Information

mean distance from Sun

778,340,821 km (5.2 AU)

eccentricity of orbit

0.048

inclination of orbit to ecliptic

1.3°

Jovian year (sidereal period of revolution)

11.86 Earth years

dbwhu

Separated in time by an average of seven to eight hours, each fragment plunged deeply into the Jovian atmosphere, leaving conspicuous scars aligned in a zone near latitude 44° S. Astronomers labeled the individual fragments with capital letters in order of arrival. Fragment G, with an estimated diameter of 3–4 km (1.9–2.5 miles), was probably the largest and heaviest. It left a dark multiringed blemish twice as large as Earth’s diameter.

Comet Schumaker-Levy-9

The train of fragments from Shoemaker-Levy 9 smashed into Jupiter’s atmosphere with a velocity of 216,000 km (134,000 miles) per hour beginning July 16, 1994.

In July 1994 a comet by the name of Schumaker-Levy was tracked and observed as its nucleus shattered and crashed across the surface of Jupiter.

Seeing it

Jupiter along with a few other planets wil be visible even by the naked eye throught the summer and quite clearly in this month of may.

You can glimpse one or more of Jupiter’s four largest moons with binoculars, if you hold them steadily. With only a modest backyard telescope, you can easily see Jupiter’s moons. In order outward from Jupiter, they are Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto.

This world ranks as the fourth-brightest celestial body after the sun, moon and the planet Venus, respectively. Some people describe Jupiter’s color as cream-colored

Thanks For Watching!

Out darn Spot!

Moons!

Also observed to vary are the pastel shades of various colours present in the cloud layers—from the tawny yellow that seems to characterize the main layer, through browns and blue-grays, to the well-known salmon-coloured Great Red Spot.

Jupiter has a total of 66 known moons, the four visible these are called the Galilean moons.

Io

Volcanic fissures, instead of impact craters, dot the surface of Io. Nine volcanoes were observed in eruption when the two Voyager spacecraft flew by in 1979, while the closer encounters by Galileo indicated that as many as 300 volcanic vents may be active at a given time!

The silicate lava emerging from the vents is extremely hot (about 1,900 K [3,000 °F, 1,630 °C]), resembling primitive lavas on early Earth. This unprecedented level of activity makes Io the most tectonically active object in the solar system.

Callisto

The icy surface of this satellite is so dominated by impact craters; In other words, there seem to be no areas on Callisto where upwelling of material from internal activity.The unmodified appearance of the surface is consistent with the absence of a differentiated interior. Evidently no tidally induced global heating and consequent melting occurred on Callisto, unlike the other three Galilean moons.

Aside from water ice, solid carbon dioxide is present on the surface, and an extremely tenuous carbon dioxide atmosphere is slowly escaping into space. Other trace surface constituents are hydrogen peroxide, sulfur and sulfur compounds, and organic compounds that may have been delivered by cometary impacts.

Jupiter's great Red Spot is a giant anti-cyclonic (high pressure) storm like hurricanes on Earth, but it is enormous (three Earths would fit in it) and it has for at least the last 400 years that humans have observed it through telescopes.

In order of increasing distance from the planet, these satellites are called Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto

Models of Europa's interior suggest the presence of an iron-rich core surrounded by a silicate mantle surmounted by an icy crust some 150 km (90 miles) thick.

Europa

Europa too, is covered in Ice, but is different than Ganymede and Callisto in that it has very few impact craters suggesting, that like earth, the surface is new and that significant resurfaceing is still ocurring.

The big question to Europa is whether there is a global ocean of liquid water beneath Europa’s ice? Voyager data and high-resolution Galileo images suggest fluid activity near the surface. In addition, explanation of Europa’s induced magnetic field appears to require an interior, electrically conducting fluid medium, implying a salt-containing liquid water layer at some depth beneath the surface ice. If this ocean and its required source of heat exist, the presence of at least microbial life-forms is a possibility!

I SEE YOU!

Ganymede

Unlike Callisto, Ganymede, an equally icy satellite, reveals distinct patches of dark and light terrain. Ganymede has an iron-rich core and a permanent magnetic field that is strong enough to create its own magnetosphere and auroras.

The trace components identified in Ganymede’s icy surface include a smaller amount of the same claylike dust found on Callisto and the same traces of solid carbon dioxide, hydrogen peroxide, and sulfur compounds, plus evidence for molecular oxygen and ozone trapped in the ice.

The clouds associated with the Spot appear to be about 8 km above neighboring cloud tops.