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11 Extraordinary Facts About Jupiter
Jupiter: The King of Planets
Key Facts
- Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System.
- 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.
- Jupiter has the shortest day of any planet, with a day lasting only 10 hours.
- Jupiter has the largest moon in the Solar System, Ganymede, which is larger than Mercury.
- Jupiter has a faint ring system composed of dust particles ejected from its moons.
- Jupiter has at least 67 moons, including the four large Galilean moons discovered by Galileo Galilei in 1610.
Internal Structure and Atmosphere
- 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.
- 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.
Notable Features
- Jupiter's Great Red Spot is a giant storm that has been raging for at least 300 years.
- Jupiter is the most magnetically active planet in the Solar System, with a magnetic field 14 times stronger than Earth's.
- Jupiter's radiation belts are the most intense in the Solar System and can be dangerous.