Definition

• Fifth planet from the Sun

Size

• Diameter: 143,000 kilometers (89,000 miles)
• 11 times the Earth's diameter
• 1/10 times Sun's diameter
• More than one thousand Earths could fit inside Jupiter

Mass

• Mass: 1.9 x 10²⁷ kilograms
• 318 times the mass of the Earth
• 1/1000 of Sun's mass
• More than twice as massive as all the other planets combined
• Average density is comparable to the density of water

Motion

• Average distance from the Sun: 778,000,000 kilometers (5.2 times as far away from the Sun as the Earth)
• Average orbital speed: 13 kilometers/sec
• Jupiter year (time to orbit the Sun once): 4333 days (12 Earth years)
• Jupiter day (time to spin once): 10 hours

Structure

• Large, turbulent atmosphere of mainly hydrogen ( 90%) and helium (10%)
• Great Red Spot: giant hurricane-like storm system greater than the size of two Earths and in existence for more than three centuries
• Liquid metallic hydrogen body of ionized protons and electrons
• Small solid core with a mass of about a dozen Earths

Satellites

• 16 main moons including the Galilean ones of Callisto, Ganymede, Europa, and Io
• 44 additional small orbiting bodies (as of May 2003)
• Four dark, thinnish rings

Other

• Magnetosphere: a huge, powerful magnetic field extending deep into space
• Fourth brightest object in the night sky (after the Sun, Moon and Venus)
• In July 1994, the fragments of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 collided into Jupiter.
• Frequent aurorae

Image

The Planet Jupiter
The Great Red Spot is located to the left.