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Search Britannica Click here to search Search Britannica Click here to search Login Subscribe Subscribe Home Games & Quizzes History & Society Science & Tech Biographies Animals & Nature Geography & Travel Arts & Culture Money Videos Jupiter Table of Contents Jupiter Table of Contents * Introduction & Top Questions * Basic astronomical data * The atmosphere * The clouds and the Great Red Spot * Nature of the Great Red Spot * Cloud composition * Atmospheric characteristics * Proportions of constituents * Temperature and pressure * Other likely atmospheric constituents * Collisions with comets and asteroids * Radio emission * The magnetic field and magnetosphere * The auroras * The interior * Jupiter’s moons and ring * The Galilean satellites * Callisto * Ganymede * Europa * Io * Other satellites * The ring * Origin of the Jovian system * Early history of Jupiter * Early history of the satellites References & Edit History Related Topics Images, Videos & Interactives For Students Jupiter summary Quizzes Astronomy and Space Quiz Science Quiz Space Odyssey Planets and the Earth’s Moon Brightest Star in the Solar System Related Questions * What is Jupiter made up of? * What is Robert Hooke famous for? * How has Galileo influenced science? Read Next A Model of the Cosmos Why Is Pluto No Longer a Planet? 7 Important Dates in Jupiter History 5 Mysteries of Jupiter That Juno Might Solve 10 Important Dates in Pluto History Discover The Disappearance of Amelia Earhart Were the Nazis Socialists? Is Spontaneous Human Combustion Real? The 10 Greatest Basketball Players of All Time 12 Novels Considered the “Greatest Book Ever Written” 7 of History's Most Notorious Serial Killers Do We Really Use Only 10 Percent of Our Brain? Home Science Astronomy Science & Tech JUPITER planet Actions Cite Share Give Feedback External Websites Print Cite Share Feedback External Websites Written by Tobias Chant Owen Professor of Astronomy, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu. Coauthor of The Planetary System; The Search for Life in the Universe; and numerous research articles. Tobias Chant Owen Fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Last Updated: Dec 26, 2023 • Article History Table of Contents Top Questions WHAT IS THE PERIOD OF REVOLUTION OF JUPITER? Jupiter takes nearly 12 Earth years to orbit the Sun, and it rotates once about every 10 hours, more than twice as fast as Earth. WHEN WAS JUPITER'S RING DISCOVERED? The existence of Jupiter's ring was first suggested in 1974, as a result of findings from the Pioneer 10 spacecraft as it approached the planet. The ring was verified in 1979 by the first Voyager spacecraft when it crossed the planet’s equatorial plane. IS JUPITER THE LARGEST PLANET IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM? Jupiter is the most massive planet in the solar system. It has an equatorial diameter of about 143,000 km (88,900 miles). WHAT IS JUPITER MADE UP OF? Jupiter is composed primarily of hydrogen and helium. Under equilibrium conditions, the abundant chemically active elements are all expected to combine with hydrogen.Thus, during earlier study of Jupiter, it was surmised that methane, ammonia, water, and hydrogen sulfide would be present. Except for hydrogen sulfide, all these compounds have been found by spectroscopic observations from Earth. photo of Jupiter taken by Voyager 1 Photograph of Jupiter taken by Voyager 1 on February 1, 1979, at a range of 32.7 million km (20.3 million miles). Prominent are the planet's pastel-shaded cloud bands and Great Red Spot (lower centre).(more) Jupiter, the most massive planet of the solar system and the fifth in distance from the Sun. It is one of the brightest objects in the night sky; only the Moon, Venus, and sometimes Mars are more brilliant. Jupiter is designated by the symbol ♃. When ancient astronomers named the planet Jupiter for the Roman ruler of the gods and heavens (also known as Jove), they had no idea of the planet’s true dimensions, but the name is appropriate, for Jupiter is larger than all the other planets combined. It takes nearly 12 Earth years to orbit the Sun, and it rotates once about every 10 hours, more than twice as fast as Earth; its colourful cloud bands can be seen with even a small telescope. It has a narrow system of rings and 92 known moons, one larger than the planet Mercury and three larger than Earth’s Moon. Some astronomers speculate that Jupiter’s moon Europa may be hiding an ocean of warm water—and possibly even some kind of life—beneath an icy crust. Jupiter has an internal heat source; it emits more energy than it receives from the Sun. The pressure in its deep interior is so high that the hydrogen there exists in a fluid metallic state. This giant has the strongest magnetic field of any planet, with a magnetosphere so large that, if it could be seen from Earth, its apparent diameter would exceed that of the Moon. Jupiter’s system is also the source of intense bursts of radio noise, at some frequencies occasionally radiating more energy than the Sun. Despite all its superlatives, however, Jupiter is made almost entirely of only two elements, hydrogen and helium, and its mean density is not much more than the density of water. crescent view of Jupiter Crescent view of Jupiter, a composite of three images taken by Voyager 1 on March 24, 1979.(more) View Jupiter's images captured from the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) aboard the New Horizons spacecraft View of Jupiter created from images taken by the Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) aboard the New Horizons spacecraft.(more) See all videos for this article Knowledge about the Jovian system grew dramatically after the mid-1970s as a result of explorations by three spacecraft missions—Pioneers 10 and 11 in 1973–74, Voyager 1 and 2 in 1979, and the Galileo orbiter and probe, which arrived at Jupiter in December 1995. The Pioneer spacecraft served as scouts for the Voyagers, showing that the radiation environment of Jupiter was tolerable and mapping out the main characteristics of the planet and its environment. The greater number and increased sophistication of the Voyager instruments provided so much new information that it was still being analyzed when the Galileo mission began. The previous missions had all been flybys, but Galileo released a probe into Jupiter’s atmosphere and then went into orbit about the planet for intensive investigations of the entire system until September 2003. In July 2016, the Juno orbiter arrived at Jupiter for a mission expected to last two years. Other looks at the Jovian system were provided in late 2000 and early 2001 by the flyby of the Cassini spacecraft on its way to Saturn and in 2007 by the flyby of the New Horizons spacecraft on its way to Pluto. Observations of the impacts of the fragmented nucleus of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 with Jupiter’s atmosphere in 1994 also yielded information about its composition and structure. Britannica Quiz Giants of Our Solar System BASIC ASTRONOMICAL DATA Jupiter has an equatorial diameter of about 143,000 km (88,900 miles) and orbits the Sun at a mean distance of 778 million km (483 million miles). The table shows additional physical and orbital data for Jupiter. Of special interest are the planet’s low mean density of 1.33 grams per cubic cm—in contrast with Earth’s 5.52 grams per cubic cm—coupled with its large dimensions and mass and short rotation period. The low density and large mass indicate that Jupiter’s composition and structure are quite unlike those of Earth and the other inner planets, a deduction that is supported by detailed investigations of the giant planet’s atmosphere and interior. Planetary data for Jupiter *Time required for the planet to return to the same position in the sky relative to the Sun as seen from Earth. **Calculated for the altitude at which 1 bar of atmospheric pressure is exerted. 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 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 Three rotation periods, all within a few minutes of each other, have been established. The two periods called System I (9 hours 50 minutes 30 seconds) and System II (9 hours 55 minutes 41 seconds) are mean values and refer to the speed of rotation at the equator and at higher latitudes, respectively, as exhibited by features observed in the planet’s visible cloud layers. Jupiter has no solid surface; the transition from the gaseous atmosphere to the fluid interior occurs gradually at great depths. Thus the variation in rotation period at different latitudes does not imply that the planet itself rotates with either of these mean velocities. In fact, the true rotation period of Jupiter is System III (9 hours 55 minutes 29 seconds). This is the period of rotation of Jupiter’s magnetic field, first deduced from Earth-based observations at radio wavelengths (see below Radio emission) and confirmed by direct spacecraft measurements. This period, which has been constant for 30 years of observation, applies to the massive interior of the planet, where the magnetic field is generated. THE ATMOSPHERE THE CLOUDS AND THE GREAT RED SPOT computer-generated composite of Jupiter Computer-generated composite of Jupiter, showing the entire planet's visible surface and its characteristic cloud bands. The four small dark ovals lined up in the upper centre of the image may be gaps in the upper atmosphere, opening to reveal cloud layers below. The Great Red Spot appears in the lower right. The composite is based on 10 colour images taken by Voyager 1 on February 1, 1979.(more) computer-generated visualization of Jupiter's equatorial cloud layers Computer-generated visualization of a portion of Jupiter's equatorial cloud layers, simulating a view from between layers. Ordinarily, when seen from space, Jupiter's cloud surfaces have a topographically flat appearance. This false-colour image combines data from Galileo spacecraft observations made at three wavelengths of infrared light, which are absorbed at different levels of the atmosphere and thus provide information about cloud heights that can be used to add surface relief. The image reduces the more complex true cloud layer into a simple model with lower and upper decks. Visible just above the lower deck is a small cloud formation (rendered in light blue). To its left (in reddish purple) is a “hot spot,” a hole in the lower cloud layer similar to one in which the Galileo probe entered on December 7, 1995.(more) Even a modest telescope can show much detail on Jupiter. The region of the planet’s atmosphere that is visible from Earth contains several different types of clouds that are separated both vertically and horizontally. Changes in these cloud systems can occur over periods of a few hours, but an underlying pattern of latitudinal currents has maintained its stability for decades. It has become traditional to describe the appearance of the planet in terms of a standard nomenclature for its alternating dark bands, called belts, and bright bands, called zones. The underlying currents, however, seem to have a greater persistence than this pattern. For example, the south equatorial belt has faded away several times and has even totally disappeared (most recently in 2010), only to reappear months or years later. false-colour mosaic of Jupiter's northern hemisphere False-colour mosaic of a part of Jupiter's northern hemisphere, made from images taken by the Galileo spacecraft on April 3, 1997. North is at the top. The more conspicuous features include alternating bands of eastward- and westward-moving clouds, white ovals, dark spots, and turbulent vortices. The view is one of the first to show different layers in Jupiter's atmosphere: haze over upper-atmosphere cloud breaks is represented in dark purple, thin high clouds in light blue, thick high clouds in white, and clouds lower in the atmosphere in reddish hues. (more) The close-up views of Jupiter transmitted to Earth by spacecraft reveal a variety of cloud forms, including many elliptical features reminiscent of cyclonic and anticyclonic storm systems on Earth. All these systems are in motion, appearing and disappearing on time scales that vary with their sizes and locations. 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’s largest, most prominent, and longest-lived feature. 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. false-colour mosaic of the Great Red Spot False-colour mosaic of two of the long-lived white ovals south of the Great Red Spot, assembled from images taken by the Galileo spacecraft on February 19, 1997. The colours represent the relative altitude and density of different clouds in Jupiter's atmosphere. Light blue clouds, such as those at the centres of the ovals, are high and thin; white clouds surrounding the blue are at the same altitude but are thicker; and the dark purple over the ovals is high haze reaching into the stratosphere.(more) Jovian meteorology can be compared with the global circulation of Earth’s atmosphere. On Earth huge spiral cloud systems often stretch over many degrees of latitude and are associated with motion around high- and low-pressure regions. These cloud systems are much less zonally confined than the cloud systems on Jupiter and move in latitude as well as longitude. Local weather on Earth is often closely tied to the local environment, which in turn is determined by the varied nature of the planet’s surface. Jupiter: south pole Jupiter's south pole as seen by the Juno spacecraft.(more) Jupiter has no solid surface—hence, no topographic features—and the planet’s large-scale circulation is dominated by latitudinal currents. The lack of a solid surface with physical boundaries and regions with different heat capacities makes the persistence of these currents and their associated cloud patterns all the more remarkable. The Great Red Spot, for example, moves in longitude with respect to all three of the planet’s rotation systems, yet it does not move in latitude. The white ovals found at a latitude just south of the Great Red Spot exhibit similar behaviour; white ovals of this size are found nowhere else on the planet. The dark brown clouds, evidently holes in the tawny cloud layer, are found almost exclusively near 18° N latitude. The strongest thermal emission is detected from blue-gray or purple areas that occur in the equatorial region of the planet. Observations from Juno showed that the poles are covered in swirling Earth-sized storms. NATURE OF THE GREAT RED SPOT Great Red Spot A true-colour image of Jupiter's Great Red Spot taken by the Juno spacecraft.(more) The true nature of Jupiter’s unique Great Red Spot was still unknown at the start of the 21st century, despite extensive observations from the Voyager, Galileo, and Juno spacecrafts. On a planet whose cloud patterns have lifetimes often counted in days, the Great Red Spot has been continuously observed since 1878 and may even be the same storm that was observed from 1665 to 1713. From its maximum extent of about 48,000 km (30,000 miles) in the late 19th century, the spot has been shrinking, and since 2012 the spot, once decidedly oval, has become more circular and has been shrinking at an accelerated rate of 900 km (580 miles) per year. Its present size is about 16,350 km (10,159 miles) wide—large enough to accommodate Earth easily. These huge dimensions are probably responsible for the feature’s longevity and possibly for its distinct colour. Great Red Spot Jupiter's Great Red Spot (top right) and the surrounding region, as seen from Voyager 1 on March 1, 1979. Below the spot is one of the large white ovals associated with the feature.(more) The rotation period of the Great Red Spot around the planet does not match any of Jupiter’s three rotation periods. It shows a variability that has not been successfully correlated with other Jovian phenomena. Voyager observations revealed that the material within the spot circulates in a counterclockwise direction once every seven days, corresponding to superhurricane-force winds of 400 km (250 miles) per hour at the periphery. The Voyager images also recorded a large number of interactions between the Great Red Spot and much smaller disturbances moving in the current at the same latitude. The interior of the spot is remarkably tranquil, with no clear evidence for the expected upwelling (or divergence) of material from lower depths. Jupiter's Great Red Spot Jupiter's Great Red Spot and its surroundings, photographed by Voyager 1, February 25, 1979. Included are the white ovals, observed since the 1930s, and immense areas of turbulence to the left of the Great Red Spot.(more) The Great Red Spot, therefore, appears to be a huge anticyclone, a vortex or eddy whose diameter is presumably accompanied by a great depth that allows the feature to reach well below and well above the main cloud layers. The Red Spot is heating Jupiter’s upper atmosphere from below and making it hundreds of degrees hotter than would be expected from solar heating alone. The spot’s lower extension remains to be observed. Load Next Page Feedback Corrections? Updates? Omissions? Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Feedback Type Select a type (Required) Factual Correction Spelling/Grammar Correction Link Correction Additional Information Other Your Feedback Submit Feedback Thank you for your feedback Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Feedback Corrections? Updates? Omissions? Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Feedback Type Select a type (Required) Factual Correction Spelling/Grammar Correction Link Correction Additional Information Other Your Feedback Submit Feedback Thank you for your feedback Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. verifiedCite While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Select Citation Style MLA APA Chicago Manual of Style Owen, Tobias Chant. "Jupiter". Encyclopedia Britannica, 26 Dec. 2023, https://www.britannica.com/place/Jupiter-planet. Accessed 2 February 2024. Copy Citation Share Share to social media Facebook Twitter URL https://www.britannica.com/place/Jupiter-planet External Websites * Live Science - Jupiter: Facts about the king of the planets * Space.com - Jupiter: A guide to the largest planet in the solar system * NASA Science - Jupiter * The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction - Jupiter * The Planetary Society - Jupiter, the planet with a planetary system of its own * National Geographic - Science - Jupiter Britannica Websites Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. * Jupiter - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11) * Jupiter - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up) print Print Please select which sections you would like to print: * Table Of Contents * Introduction & Top Questions * Basic astronomical data * The atmosphere * The magnetic field and magnetosphere * The auroras * The interior * Jupiter’s moons and ring * Origin of the Jovian system verifiedCite While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Select Citation Style MLA APA Chicago Manual of Style Owen, Tobias Chant. "Jupiter". Encyclopedia Britannica, 26 Dec. 2023, https://www.britannica.com/place/Jupiter-planet. Accessed 2 February 2024. Copy Citation Share Share to social media Facebook Twitter URL https://www.britannica.com/place/Jupiter-planet External Websites * Live Science - Jupiter: Facts about the king of the planets * Space.com - Jupiter: A guide to the largest planet in the solar system * NASA Science - Jupiter * The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction - Jupiter * The Planetary Society - Jupiter, the planet with a planetary system of its own * National Geographic - Science - Jupiter Britannica Websites Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. * Jupiter - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11) * Jupiter - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up) Update Privacy Preferences