Jupiter is a gas giant in the Solar System and the fifth planet from the Sun, which it orbits at a distance of about 5.2 astronomical units (~ 778 million km).
General Information[]
Jupiter is the largest planet in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets combined, and slightly less than one-thousandth the mass of the Sun. Jupiter is the third brightest natural object in the Earth's night sky after the Moon and Venus, and it has been observed since prehistoric times. It was named after Jupiter, the chief deity of ancient Roman religion.
Jupiter is primarily composed of hydrogen (90% by volume), followed by helium, which makes up a quarter of its mass and a tenth of its volume. Its most striking feature is the Great Red Spot, a giant storm which has been observed since 1831 and possibly earlier.
Moons[]
The planet is surrounded by a faint planetary ring system and has a powerful magnetosphere. Jupiter also forms a system of 95 known moons and probably many more, including the four large moons discovered by Galileo Galilei in 1610: Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. Ganymede, the largest of the four, is larger than the planet Mercury. Callisto is the second largest, Io and Europa are approximately the size of Earth's Moon.
Trojans[]
Within its orbit around the Sun, two large clusters of Trojan asteroids orbit at Jupiter's L4 and L5 Lagrange points. These two groups are known as the "Trojans" and the "Greeks".
History[]
In 2003, the Thomas Paine Space Telescope picked up images of the asteroid 2003LC, which was believed to have decayed from a Jovian trojan orbit. The asteroid was redirected to the inner Solar System, coming in on a Mars-crossing orbit, and after an analysis of its moon, it was believed to have an estimate of 70,000 metric tons of Iridium, valued at $20 trillion. Because of this, 2003LC was named the Goldilocks asteroid.[1]
Behind the scenes[]
Notes[]
Jupiter is not shown in the series (as of season 4). The image in the infobox is from original sources (Cassini mission, 2000), not from the show, same for the comparison graphics. Also, the scientific informations are from real world sources from our current time.
Show related information is generally everything inside the history section and should be referenced correctly.
Sources[]
Sources for the scientific information on this page are mostly NASA pages and Wikipedia (see external links). Distances between the planet and Earth are from (archived). Communication delay is calculated using these distances and the speed of light.
See also[]
External links[]
Jupiter on Wikipedia
science.nasa.gov: NASA science: Jupiter(archived 2024-12-19)- nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov: Jupiter factsheet(archived 2024-12-09)
References
- ↑ For All Mankind TV series, season 4, episode 5, "Goldilocks"