11 Extraordinary Facts About Jupiter

1. Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System.

2. Jupiter is a gas giant with a mass one-thousandth that of the Sun, but two-and-a-half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined.

3. Jupiter has the shortest day of any planet, with a day lasting only 10 hours.

4. Jupiter has the largest moon in the Solar System, Ganymede, which is larger than Mercury.

5. Jupiter has a faint ring system composed of dust particles ejected from its moons.

6. Jupiter has at least 67 moons, including the four large Galilean moons discovered by Galileo Galilei in 1610.

7. Jupiter is believed to have a rocky core surrounded by a layer of metallic hydrogen, a layer of liquid hydrogen and helium, and an outer gaseous atmosphere.

8. Jupiter’s atmosphere is composed of hydrogen and helium, with trace amounts of other gases. It has a visible cloud deck that is divided into bands of different colors.

9. Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is a giant storm that has been raging for at least 300 years.

10. Jupiter is the most magnetically active planet in the Solar System, with a magnetic field 14 times stronger than Earth’s.

11. Jupiter’s radiation belts are the most intense in the Solar System and can be dangerous