Every summer evening, looking at the southern sky, you can see a very bright star with a reddish or orange tint. This is the planet Jupiter - the most big planet Solar system.
Jupiter is the king among all the planets. It is in its fifth orbit, counting from the Sun, and we owe much of our quiet existence to it. Jupiter belongs to the gas giant planets, and its radius is 11.2 times greater than that of Earth. In terms of mass, it is almost 2.5 times heavier than all other planets combined. Jupiter has 67 known moons, some very small and some very large.
So Jupiter is the largest planet, with the largest mass, the strongest gravitational field, and the greatest influence in the solar system. In addition, it is one of the simplest and most beautiful objects to observe.
Of course, it is incorrect to talk about the discovery of this planet, because the planet Jupiter looks like the brightest star in the sky. That is why it has been known since ancient times, and there simply is not and cannot be a discoverer here.
Another thing is that Galileo Galilei in 1610 was able to examine the four largest satellites of Jupiter through his primitive telescope, and this was a discovery. But that's another story that applies to satellites. Subsequently, dozens more of them were discovered, both through telescopes and with the help of space probes.
The largest planet in the solar system undoubtedly has outstanding characteristics. In fact, this planet is so different from our tiny Earth that there are quite a lot of interesting facts about Jupiter. Here are some of them:
- The planet Jupiter is very massive. Its mass is equal to 318 Earth's. Even if you take all the other planets and mold them into one lump, then Jupiter will be 2.5 times heavier than it.
- The volume of Jupiter would fit 1,300 planets like Earth.
- Gravity on Jupiter is 2.5 times greater than Earth's.
- The metal core of Jupiter is heated to 20 thousand degrees.
- Jupiter emits more heat than it receives from the Sun.
- Jupiter will never be a star; it does not have enough mass for this. For a thermonuclear reaction to begin in its depths, Jupiter needs to increase its mass by 80 times. This amount of matter cannot be accumulated in the Solar System, even if all the planets, their satellites, asteroids, comets, and all the small debris are collected together.
- Jupiter is the fastest rotating planet in the solar system. Despite its enormous size, it makes a full revolution in less than 10 hours. Due to its rapid rotation, Jupiter is noticeably flattened at the poles.
- The thickness of the clouds on Jupiter is only about 50 km. The cloud layer looks very powerful. All these huge storms and colored stripes thousands of kilometers in size are actually located in a small interval of thickness. They consist mainly of ammonia crystals - the lighter ones are located lower, and those that rise up become darker due to solar radiation. Under the cloud layer there is a mixture of hydrogen and helium of varying densities up to the metallic state.
- The Great Red Spot was first discovered by Giovanni Cassini back in 1665. This giant storm existed even then, that is, it is already at least 350-400 years old. True, over the past 100 years it has halved, but it is the largest and longest-lived storm in the solar system. Other storms last only a few days.
- Jupiter has rings; they were discovered after the well-known rings of Saturn and the much smaller rings of Uranus. Jupiter's rings are very faint. Perhaps they are formed from material that was ejected from satellites during meteorite impacts.
- Jupiter has the most powerful magnetic field of all the planets, 14 times stronger than Earth's. There is a theory that it is generated by a huge metal core rotating in the center of the planet. This magnetic field accelerates solar wind particles to almost the speed of light. Therefore, there are very powerful radiation belts near Jupiter that can damage electronics. spacecraft, which makes it dangerous to get close to him.
- Jupiter has a record number of satellites - 79 were known in 2018. Scientists believe that there may be many more of them and not all have been discovered yet. Some are the size of the Moon, and some are just pieces of rock several kilometers in size.
- Jupiter's moon Ganymede is the largest moon in the solar system. Its diameter is 5260 km, which is 8% larger than even Mercury and 51% larger than the Moon. That is, it is practically a planet.
- Jupiter, with its gravity, protects us from many dangers in the form of comets and asteroids, deflecting their orbits. He practically cleaned out the interior of the solar system, providing us with enough free space. Comets and asteroids penetrating towards us sooner or later change their orbit under the influence of Jupiter to one that is more rounded and safer for the Earth.
- Jupiter can be easily observed. This is the brightest star in the earth's sky after Venus and the Moon. Already with 8-10x binoculars you can see 4 of its Galilean satellites. And in a small telescope, Jupiter is visible as a disk, and you can even see the belts on it.
As you can see, the planet Jupiter is not some ordinary ball of gas. This the whole world, which has many secrets and mysteries that scientists are gradually unraveling. In fact, this planet with its satellites is a miniature solar system, where dozens of its own unique worlds exist. If you are interested, you can also learn a lot of interesting things about Jupiter from a short video:
Distance from Jupiter to the Sun
The orbit of the planet Jupiter is located much further from the Sun than the Earth's. If from the Earth to the Sun it is approximately 150 million kilometers, or 1 astronomical unit, then to Jupiter it is on average 778 million kilometers, or 5.2 AU. Jupiter's orbit is not very different from circular; the difference in distance from the Sun at its closest and farthest points is 76 million kilometers.
A year on Jupiter lasts 11.86 Earth years—that’s how long it takes this planet to make one revolution around the Sun. At the same time, once every 13 months, Jupiter finds itself in line with the Earth, and the distance between them is minimal - this is called opposition. This is the best time to observe Jupiter.
Once every 13 years, the Great Oppositions of Jupiter occur, when this planet, moreover, finds itself not only opposite the Earth, but also at the closest point of its orbit. This is the best time when every astronomer, both professional and amateur, points his telescope at this planet.
The planet Jupiter has a very slight tilt, only about 3 degrees, and the seasons there do not change.
Characteristics of the planet Jupiter
Jupiter is a very curious planet that has little in common with the things we are familiar with.
Radius– about 70 thousand kilometers, which is 11.2 times the radius of the Earth. In fact, due to its rapid rotation, this gas ball has a rather flattened shape, so its radius at the poles is about 66 thousand kilometers, and at the equator - 71 thousand kilometers.
Weight- 318 times the mass of the Earth. If you collect all the planets, comets, asteroids and other bodies of the Solar System in one heap, then Jupiter will be 2.5 times heavier than this heap.
Rotation time at the equator - 9 hours 50 minutes 30 seconds. Yes, this giant ball makes a full revolution around its axis in less than 10 hours, that’s exactly the length of a day there. But it is a ball of gas, not solid, and it rotates like a liquid. Therefore, in middle latitudes the rotation speed is different; the revolution there occurs in 9 hours 55 minutes 40 seconds. So the length of the day depends on the location. In addition, we can track the rotation of the planet only by clouds in the upper atmosphere, and not by surface landmarks, which are not there, just as there is no surface itself.
Surface area- 122 times larger than the earth’s, but this surface is not solid, and there is absolutely nowhere to land there. Yes, and there is no clear boundary. When descending to Jupiter, the gas will simply condense under pressure - at first it will be just a gaseous atmosphere, then something like a very rich fog, smoothly flowing into a completely liquid environment.
A magnetic field The planet Jupiter in the system is the most powerful, it is 14 times stronger than the Earth. The radiation from it is such that even space probes cannot withstand it for a long time without equipment breakdowns.
Atmosphere Jupiter, at least its upper layers, consists mainly of hydrogen (90%) and helium (10%). It also contains methane, hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, water and other impurities. It has not yet been possible to study the deep layers reliably. Red phosphorus and its compounds are primarily what give Jupiter its red appearance. Enjoy virtual, eerily beautiful views of the atmosphere of the planet Jupiter:
Core Jupiter has a temperature of about 3000 K and consists of molten metal, in particular metallic hydrogen. Kernel size more than Earth.
Acceleration of gravity on the planet Jupiter will be approximately 2.5g.
What would await an observer who dared to approach Jupiter? At first there would be wonderful views of the planet, satellites, perhaps even the rings of the planet could be seen. Then, when approaching the planet, our daredevil would be killed by radiation. If his mortal body does not remain in eternal orbit and does enter the atmosphere, then fire, enormous pressure, and a long fall of what remains awaits him there. Or perhaps it will not be a fall, but the carrying of the remnants by the will of the hurricane until the chemical composition of the atmosphere breaks them down into individual molecules.
Jupiter's Great Red Spot
One of the most curious phenomena of Jupiter, which can be observed even with an average telescope, is the Great Red Spot, which is visible on the surface of the planet, and which rotates with it. Its dimensions (they are not constant) are approximately 40 thousand kilometers in length and 13 thousand kilometers in width - the entire Earth could fit into this giant hurricane!
Comparative sizes of the Great Red Spot on Jupiter.
Observations of this phenomenon have been ongoing for 350 years, and since then the spot has not disappeared. For a long time it was believed that this was something solid on the surface of the planet, but Voyager 1 in 1979 took detailed photographs of Jupiter and clarified this issue. It turned out that the Great Red Spot is nothing more than an atmospheric vortex! And this is the largest hurricane in the solar system, which people have been seeing for 350 years, and no one knows how long it has existed. Although over the past 100 years the size of the spot has become half as large.
The rotation of the spot around its axis is 6 hours, and at the same time it rotates with the planet.
The winds blowing in this hurricane reach speeds of 500-600 km/h (about 170 m/s). Compared to this, our strongest earthly hurricanes are nothing more than a gentle, pleasant breeze. However, in the center of the spot, as in terrestrial hurricanes of this type, the weather is quite calm. By the way, the wind is much stronger.
In addition to the Great Red Spot, there are other similar formations on the planet Jupiter - hurricanes. They form in different areas and can exist for decades, gradually disappearing. Sometimes they collide with each other or even with the Great Red Spot, and then its brightness and size can change. The longest-lived vortices form in the southern hemisphere, but why this is so is not clear.
Moons of Jupiter
The giant Jupiter has a very large retinue, as befits a real god. To date, 79 satellites are known, of various sizes and shapes - from huge ones, like the Moon, to pieces of rock several kilometers long, like asteroids. They all have names associated with the god Zeus-Jupiter in mythology. Scientists believe that there may be even more satellites, although this is already a record number among all the planets in the solar system.
Since Galileo Galilei discovered the first and largest moons of Jupiter in 1610, Ganymede and Callisto have been the only ones known. They can be seen even with binoculars, and in a small telescope they are visible quite clearly.
Each of these moons of Jupiter is very interesting and represents a unique world. On some, scientists suggest the presence of conditions for the development of life, and even probe projects are being developed to study them in more detail.
In the 70s of the last century, astronomers already knew 13 satellites, and, flying past Jupiter, they discovered three more. In the 90s, new powerful telescopes appeared, including the Hubble Space Telescope. Since then, dozens more small satellites of Jupiter have been discovered, many of which are only a few kilometers in size. It is, of course, impossible to detect them with an amateur telescope.
The future of Jupiter
Now the planet Jupiter is not included in the habitable zone, since it is located too far from the Sun and liquid water cannot exist on the surface of its satellites. Although its presence is assumed to be under the surface layer, so-called subsurface oceans may exist on Ganymede, Europa and Callisto.
Over time, the Sun will increase in size, approaching Jupiter. Gradually, the satellites of Jupiter will warm up and some of them will have quite comfortable conditions for the emergence and maintenance of life.
However, in 7.5 billion years, the Sun will turn into a huge red giant, the surface of which will be located only 500 million kilometers from Jupiter - three times closer than from the Earth to the Sun now. The Earth and even by that time will have long been swallowed up by our swollen star. And Jupiter itself will turn into a planet of the “hot Jupiter” type - a gas ball heated to 1000 degrees, which itself will glow. Its rocky companions will be burnt pieces of stone, and the icy ones will disappear altogether.
But by that time, more favorable conditions will arise on the satellites, one of which is, and now represents a whole organic factory with a thick atmosphere. Perhaps then it will be the turn for new forms of life to appear there too.
Observing Jupiter
This planet is very convenient for novice amateur astronomers. It is visible in the southern part of the sky, and it rises quite high above the horizon. In terms of brightness, Jupiter is only inferior. The most convenient moments for observations are oppositions, when the planet is closest to Earth.
Oppositions of Jupiter:
Observing the planet Jupiter is interesting even with binoculars. An 8-10x magnification on a dark night will allow you to see 4 Galilean satellites - Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. At the same time, the planet’s disk becomes noticeable and does not look like just a point, like other stars. Details, of course, are not visible through binoculars at such magnifications.
If you equip yourself with a telescope, you can see much more. For example, the 90 mm Sky Watcher 909 refractor, already with a complete 25 mm eyepiece (36x magnification), allows you to see several stripes on the disk of Jupiter. A 10 mm eyepiece (90x) will allow you to see a little more detail, including the Great Red Spot, shadows from satellites on the planet’s disk.
Larger telescopes will, of course, allow us to see the details of Jupiter in more detail. Details in the planet's belts will become visible and fainter satellites can be seen. With a powerful tool you can get some good pictures. It is useless to use a telescope with a diameter of more than 300 mm - atmospheric influences will not allow you to see more details. Most amateur astronomers use a diameter of 150 mm or more to observe Jupiter.
For greater convenience, you can use light blue or blue filters. With them, the Great Red Spot and belts are visible in more contrast. Light red filters help you see blue details better, while yellow filters help you see polar areas better. With green filters, cloud belts and the Great Red Spot look more contrasting.
The planet Jupiter is very active; changes are constantly occurring in the atmosphere. It makes a full revolution in less than 10 hours, which allows you to see many changing details on it. Therefore, this is a very convenient object for first observations, even for those who have a rather modest instrument.
Planets of the Solar System
Besides the Sun, the planet Jupiter is indeed the largest in size and mass in our solar system; it is not without reason that it is named after the main and most powerful god of the ancient pantheon - Jupiter in the Roman tradition (aka Zeus, in the Greek tradition). Also, the planet Jupiter is fraught with many mysteries and has been mentioned more than once on the pages of our scientific website. In today’s article we will collect all the information about this interesting giant planet together, so, forward to Jupiter.
Who discovered Jupiter
But first, a little history of the discovery of Jupiter. In fact, the Babylonian priests and part-time astronomers were already well aware of Jupiter ancient world, it is in their works that there are the first mentions of this giant in history. The thing is that Jupiter is so large that it could always be seen in the starry sky with the naked eye.
The famous astronomer Galileo Galilei was the first to study the planet Jupiter through a telescope, and he also discovered the four largest moons of Jupiter. At that time, the discovery of Jupiter's moons was an important argument in favor of Copernicus' heliocentric model (that the center of the celestial system is, and not the Earth). And the great scientist himself suffered persecution by the Inquisition for his revolutionary discoveries at that time, but that’s another story.
Subsequently, many astronomers looked at Jupiter through their telescopes, making various interesting discoveries, for example, the astronomer Cassini discovered a large red spot on the surface of the planet (we will write more about it below) and also calculated the rotation period and differential rotation of the atmosphere of Jupiter. Astronomer E. Bernard discovered the last satellite of Jupiter, Amatheus. Observations of Jupiter using increasingly powerful telescopes continue to this day.
Features of the planet Jupiter
If we compare Jupiter with our planet, then the size of Jupiter is 317 times larger than the size of the Earth. In addition, Jupiter is 2.5 times larger than all other planets in the solar system combined. As for the mass of Jupiter, it is 318 times greater than the mass of the Earth and 2.5 times greater than the mass of all other planets in the solar system combined. Jupiter's mass is 1.9 x 10*27.
Temperature of Jupiter
What is the temperature on Jupiter during the day and at night? Considering the great distance of the planet from the Sun, it is logical to assume that it is cold on Jupiter, but not everything is so simple. The outer atmosphere of the giant is indeed quite cold, the temperature there is approximately -145 degrees C, but as you move several hundred kilometers deeper into the planet it becomes warmer. And not just warmer, but simply hot, since on the surface of Jupiter the temperature can reach up to +153 C. Such a strong temperature difference is due to the fact that the surface of the planet consists of burning, releasing heat. Moreover, the internal parts of the planet emit even more heat than Jupiter itself receives from the Sun.
All this is complemented by the strongest storms raging on the planet (wind speeds reach 600 km per hour), which mix the heat emanating from the hydrogen component of Jupiter with the cold air of the atmosphere.
Is there life on Jupiter
As you can see, the physical conditions on Jupiter are very harsh, so given the lack of a solid surface, the high atmospheric pressure and the high temperature on the very surface of the planet, life on Jupiter is not possible.
Atmosphere of Jupiter
The atmosphere of Jupiter is huge, as is Jupiter itself. The chemical composition of Jupiter's atmosphere is 90% hydrogen and 10% helium, and the atmosphere also includes some other chemical elements: ammonia, methane, hydrogen sulfide. And since Jupiter is a gas giant without a solid surface, there is no boundary between its atmosphere and the surface itself.
But if we began to descend deeper into the bowels of the planet, we would notice changes in the density and temperature of hydrogen and helium. Based on these changes, scientists have identified such parts of the planet's atmosphere as the troposphere, stratosphere, thermosphere and exosphere.
Why Jupiter is not a star
Readers may have noticed that in its composition, and especially in the predominance of hydrogen and helium, Jupiter is very similar to the Sun. In this regard, the question arises why Jupiter is still a planet and not a star. The fact is that he simply did not have enough mass and heat to begin the fusion of hydrogen atoms into helium. According to scientists, Jupiter needs to increase its current mass by 80 times in order to begin thermo nuclear reactions, which occur on the Sun and other stars.
Photo of the planet Jupiter
Surface of Jupiter
Due to the absence of a solid surface on the giant planet, scientists took the lowest point in its atmosphere, where the pressure is 1 bar, as a certain conventional surface. Various chemical elements that make up the planet's atmosphere contribute to the formation of the colorful clouds of Jupiter that we can observe in a telescope. It is ammonia clouds that are responsible for the red-and-white striped color of the planet Jupiter.
Great Red Spot on Jupiter
If you carefully examine the surface of the giant planets, you will definitely notice the characteristic large red spot, which was first noticed by the astronomer Cassini while observing Jupiter in the late 1600s. What is this great red spot of Jupiter? According to scientists, this is a large atmospheric storm, so large that it has been raging in the southern hemisphere of the planet for more than 400 years, and possibly longer (considering that it could have arisen long before Cassini saw it).
Although in lately astronomers noticed that the storm began to slowly subside as the size of the spot began to shrink. According to one hypothesis, the great red spot will take a circular shape by 2040, but how long it will last is unknown.
Age of Jupiter
On this moment The exact age of the planet Jupiter is unknown. The difficulty in determining it is that scientists do not yet know how Jupiter was formed. According to one hypothesis, Jupiter, like other planets, was formed from the solar nebula about 4.6 billion years ago, but this is just a hypothesis.
Rings of Jupiter
Yes, Jupiter, like any decent giant planet, has rings. Of course, they are not as large and noticeable as those of his neighbor. Jupiter's rings are thinner and weaker; most likely they consist of substances ejected by the giant's satellites during collisions with wandering asteroids and.
Moons of Jupiter
Jupiter has as many as 67 satellites, essentially more than all other planets in the solar system. The satellites of Jupiter are of great interest to scientists, as among them there are such large specimens that their size exceeds some small planets (like “not planets”), which also have significant reserves of groundwater.
Rotation of Jupiter
One year on Jupiter lasts 11.86 Earth years. It is during this period of time that Jupiter makes one revolution around the Sun. The speed of the planet Jupiter's orbit is 13 km per second. Jupiter's orbit is slightly tilted (about 6.09 degrees) compared to the plane of the ecliptic.
How long does it take to fly to Jupiter?
How long does it take to get to Jupiter from Earth? When Earth and Jupiter are closest to each other, they are 628 million kilometers apart. How long will it take modern spaceships to cover this distance? Launched by NASA back in 1979, the Voyager 1 research shuttle took 546 days to fly to Jupiter. For Voyager 2, a similar flight took 688 days.
- Despite its truly gigantic size, Jupiter is also the fastest planet in the solar system in terms of rotation around its axis, so to make one revolution around its axis it will take only 10 of our hours, so a day on Jupiter is equal to 10 hours.
- Clouds on Jupiter can be up to 10 km thick.
- Jupiter has an intense magnetic field that is 16 times stronger than the Earth's magnetic field.
- It is quite possible to see Jupiter with your own eyes, and most likely you have seen it more than once, you just didn’t know that it was Jupiter. If you see a large and bright star in the starry night sky, then most likely it is him.
Planet Jupiter, video
And finally interesting documentary about Jupiter.
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Jupiter is the largest planet Solar system. It is located in the fifth orbit from the Sun.
Belongs to the category gas giants and fully justifies the correctness of such a classification.
Jupiter got its name in honor of the ancient supreme god of thunder. Probably due to the fact that the planet has been known since ancient times and was sometimes found in mythology.
Weight and size.
If you compare the sizes of Jupiter and Earth, you can understand how much they differ. Jupiter is more than 11 times larger in radius than our planet.
Moreover, the mass of Jupiter is 318 times greater than the mass of the Earth! And this is also affected by the small density of the giant (inferior to Earth’s by almost 5 times).
Structure and composition.
The core of the planet, which is very interesting, is made of stone. Its diameter is about 20 thousand kilometers.
This is followed by a layer of metallic hydrogen, having twice the diameter of the core. The temperature of this layer ranges from 6 to 20 thousand degrees.
The next layer is made up of a substance made of hydrogen, helium, ammonia, water and others. Its thickness is also about 20 thousand kilometers. Interestingly, at the surface this layer has a gaseous form, but then gradually turns into liquid.
Well, the last, outer layer consists, for the most part, of hydrogen. There is also some helium and slightly less other elements. This layer is gaseous.
Orbit and rotation.
The speed of Jupiter's orbit is not very high. The planet completes a full revolution around the central star in almost 12 years.
But the speed of rotation around its axis, on the contrary, is high. And even more - the highest among all the planets in the system. A turnaround takes just under 10 hours.
Information about the planet Jupiter
Atmosphere.
Jupiter's atmosphere consists of approximately 89% hydrogen and 8-10% helium. The remaining crumbs come from methane, ammonium, water and more.
When observed from afar, the bands of Jupiter are clearly visible - layers of the atmosphere that differ in composition, temperature and pressure. They even have different colors - some are lighter, others are darker. Sometimes they move around the planet in different directions and almost always at different speeds, which is quite beautiful.
In the atmosphere of Jupiter, pronounced phenomena occur: lightning, storms and others. They are on a much larger scale than on our planet.
Temperature.
Despite the distance from the Sun, temperatures on the planet are very high.
In the atmosphere - from approximately -110 °C to +1000 °C. Well, as the distance to the center of the planet decreases, the temperature also increases.
But this does not happen evenly. Especially for its atmosphere, the temperature change in its different layers occurs in a rather unexpected way. It is not yet possible to explain all such changes.
— Due to its rapid rotation around its axis, Jupiter is slightly elongated in height. Thus, its equatorial radius exceeds the polar one by almost 5 thousand kilometers (71.5 thousand km and 66.8 thousand km, respectively).
— The diameter of Jupiter is as close as possible to the limit for planets of this type of structure. With a theoretical further increase in the planet, it would begin to shrink, but its diameter would remain almost unchanged. The same one she has now.
Such compression would lead to the appearance of a new Star.
— In the atmosphere of Jupiter there is a gigantic continuous hurricane - the so-called Jupiter's Red Spot(due to its color when observed). The size of this spot exceeds several diameters of the Earth! 15 by 30 thousand kilometers - this is approximately its size (and it has shrunk by 2 times over the last 100 years).
— The planet has 3 very thin and invisible rings.
“It’s raining diamonds on Jupiter.”
— Jupiter has the most a large number of satellites among all the planets of the solar system - 67.
One of these satellites, Europa, contains a global ocean reaching a depth of 90 kilometers. The volume of water in this ocean is larger than the volume of the Earth's oceans (although the satellite is noticeably smaller in size than the Earth). Perhaps there are living organisms in this ocean.
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. This is a giant planet. Jupiter's equatorial diameter is almost 11 times that of Earth. The mass of Jupiter exceeds the mass of the Earth by 318 times.
The planet Jupiter has been known to people since ancient times: like Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn, it can be seen in the night sky with the naked eye. When the first imperfect telescopes, telescopes, began to spread in Europe at the end of the 16th century, the Italian scientist Galileo Galilei decided to make such a device for himself. He guessed to use it for the benefit of astronomy. In 1610, Galileo saw tiny “stars” orbiting Jupiter through a telescope. These four satellites discovered by Galileo(Galilean satellites) were named Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto.
The ancient Romans identified many of their gods with the Greek ones. Jupiter, the supreme Roman god, is identical to the supreme god of Olympus, Zeus. The satellites of Jupiter were given the names of characters from Zeus' circle. Io is one of his many lovers. Europa is a beautiful Phoenician woman who was kidnapped by Zeus and transformed into a mighty bull. Ganymede is a handsome young cupbearer serving Zeus. Out of jealousy, Hera, the wife of Zeus, turned the nymph Callisto into a bear. Zeus placed it in the sky in the form of the constellation Ursa Major.
For almost three centuries, only the Galilean satellites remained known to science as satellites of Jupiter. In 1892, the fifth satellite of Jupiter, Amalthea, was discovered. Amalthea is a divine goat who fed Zeus with her milk when his mother was forced to shelter her newborn son from the unbridled wrath of his father, the god Kronos. The Horn of Amalthea became a fairytale cornucopia. After Amalthea, discoveries of Jupiter's moons began to pour in like a cornucopia. Currently, 63 satellites of Jupiter are known.
Jupiter and its satellites are studied by scientists not only from Earth using modern scientific methods, but were also examined from a closer distance using space automata. The American interplanetary automatic station Pioneer 10 first came to a relatively close distance to Jupiter in 1973, Pioneer 11 a year later. In 1979, the American spacecraft Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 approached Jupiter. In 2000, the Cassini automatic interplanetary station passed by Jupiter, transmitting photographs and unique information about the planet and its satellites to Earth. From 1995 to 2003, the Galileo spacecraft operated within the Jupiter system, whose mission was to conduct a detailed study of Jupiter and its moons. Spacecraft not only helped to collect a large amount of information about Jupiter and its many satellites, but also discovered a ring around Jupiter consisting of small solid particles.
The entire swarm of Jupiter's satellites can be divided into two groups. One of them is internal (located closer to Jupiter), which includes four Galilean satellites and Amalthea. All of them, except for the relatively small Amalthea, are large cosmic bodies. The diameter of the smallest of the Galilean moons, Europa, is approximately 0.9 times the diameter of our Moon. The diameter of the largest, Ganymede, is 1.5 times the diameter of the Moon. All these satellites move in their almost circular orbits in the plane of Jupiter's equator in the direction of the planet's rotation. Like our Moon, the Galilean satellites of Jupiter are always turned to their planet with the same side: the time of revolution of each satellite around its axis and around the planet is the same. Most scientists believe that these five moons of Jupiter formed along with their planet.
A huge number of outer satellites of Jupiter are small cosmic bodies. The outer satellites in their motion do not adhere to the plane of the Jupiterian equator. Most of Jupiter's outer satellites orbit in the direction opposite to the planet's rotation. Most likely, they are all “strangers” in the world of Jupiter. Perhaps they are fragments of large cosmic bodies colliding in the vicinity of Jupiter, or one progenitor that fell apart in a strong gravitational field.
To date, scientists have collected a large amount of information about the planet Jupiter and its satellites; spacecraft have transmitted to earth a huge number of photographs taken from relatively close distances. But a real sensation, which broke the previously existing ideas of scientists about the satellites of planets, was the fact that volcanic eruptions occur on Jupiter’s satellite Io. Small cosmic bodies cool down in outer space during their existence; their depths should not maintain the enormous temperature necessary to maintain volcanic activity.
Io is not just a body that still retains some traces of subsoil activity, but the most active volcanic body in the Solar System known at the present time. Volcanic eruptions on Io can be considered almost continuous. And in their strength they are many times greater than the eruptions of terrestrial volcanoes.
Characteristics of Jupiter
What gives “life” to a small cosmic body that should have long ago turned into a dead block. Scientists believe that the planet's body is constantly heating up due to friction in the rocks that form the satellite, under the influence of the enormous gravitational force of Jupiter and the gravitational forces of Europa and Ganymede. For each revolution, Io changes its orbit twice, moving radially 10 km towards and away from Jupiter. Periodically compressing and unclenching, Io's body heats up in the same way as a bent wire heats up.
Interest children in the well-known facts and as-yet-unrevealed secrets of Jupiter and members of its large family. The Internet provides an opportunity to satisfy interest in this topic.
4.14. Jupiter
4.14.1. physical characteristics
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Jupiter (gas giant) is the fifth planet of the solar system.
Equatorial radius: 71492 ± 4 km, polar radius: 66854 ± 10 km.
Mass: 1.8986 × 10 27 kg or 317.8 Earth masses.
Average density: 1.326 g/cm³.
Jupiter's spherical albedo is 0.54.
The internal heat flux per unit area of the “surface” of Jupiter is approximately equal to the flux received from the Sun. In this respect, Jupiter is closer to the stars than to the planets terrestrial group. However, the source of Jupiter's internal energy is obviously not nuclear reactions. The energy reserve accumulated during the gravitational compression of the planet is emitted.
4.14.2. Elements of orbit and features of motion
The average distance of Jupiter from the Sun is 778.55 million km (5.204 AU). The orbital eccentricity is e = 0.04877. The period of revolution around the Sun is 11.859 years (4331.572 days); average orbital speed– 13.07 km/s. The inclination of the orbit to the ecliptic plane is 1.305°. Rotation axis tilt: 3.13°. Since the equatorial plane of the planet is close to the plane of its orbit, there are no seasons on Jupiter.
Jupiter rotates faster than any other planet in the solar system, and angular velocity rotation decreases from the equator to the poles. The rotation period is 9.925 hours. Due to its rapid rotation, Jupiter's polar compression is quite noticeable: the polar radius is 6.5% less than the equatorial radius.
Jupiter has the largest atmosphere among the planets in the solar system, which extends to a depth of more than 5000 km. Since Jupiter does not have a solid surface, the inner boundary of the atmosphere corresponds to a depth at which the pressure is 10 bar (i.e., approximately 10 atm).
Jupiter's atmosphere is mainly composed of molecular hydrogen H2 (about 90%) and helium He (about 10%). The atmosphere also contains simple molecular compounds: water, methane, hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, and phosphine, etc. Traces of the simplest hydrocarbons - ethane, benzene and other compounds have also been found.
The atmosphere has a pronounced striped structure, consisting of light zones and dark belts, which are the result of the manifestation of convective flows that carry internal heat to the surface.
In the area of light zones there is increased pressure corresponding to upward flows. The clouds forming the zones are located at more high level, and their light color is apparently explained by the increased concentration of ammonia NH 3 and ammonium hydrosulfide NH 4 HS.
The dark belt clouds below presumably contain compounds of phosphorus and sulfur, as well as some simple hydrocarbons. These compounds, which are colorless under normal conditions, acquire a dark color as a result of exposure to UV radiation from the Sun. Clouds in dark zones have a higher temperature than in light zones and represent areas of downdrafts. Zones and belts have different speeds of movement in the direction of Jupiter's rotation.
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Jupiter in the IR range |
At the boundaries of belts and zones where strong turbulence is observed, vortex structures arise, the most a shining example which is the Great Red Spot (GRS), a giant cyclone in the atmosphere of Jupiter that has existed for more than 350 years. The gas in the BKP rotates counterclockwise with a rotation period of about 6 Earth days. The wind speed inside the spot exceeds 500 km/h. The bright orange color of the spot is apparently due to the presence of sulfur and phosphorus in the atmosphere.
Jupiter is the most massive planet
The length of the BCP is about 30 thousand km in length, width - 13 thousand km (significantly larger than the Earth). The size of the spot is constantly changing, and there is a tendency to decrease it, since 100 years ago the BKP was approximately 2 times larger. The spot moves parallel to the planet's equator.
4.14.4. Internal structure
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Internal structure of Jupiter |
It is currently believed that Jupiter has a solid core at its center, followed by a layer of liquid metallic hydrogen mixed with a small amount of helium, and an outer layer of mostly molecular hydrogen. Despite the general, generally formed concept, it nevertheless contains many uncertain and unclear details.
To describe the core, the model of the planet's rocky core is most often used, but neither the properties of the substance at the extreme pressures and temperatures reached in the core (at least 3000–4500 GPa and 36000 K) nor its detailed composition are known. The presence of a solid core weighing from 12 to 45 Earth masses (or 3–15% of Jupiter's mass) follows from measurements of Jupiter's gravitational field. In addition, the solid (ice or rock) embryo of the proto-Jupiter for the subsequent accretion of light hydrogen and helium is a necessary element in modern models of the origin of planetary systems (see section 4.6).
The core is surrounded by a layer of metallic hydrogen with an admixture of helium and neon condensed into droplets. This shell extends to approximately 78% of the planet's radius. To achieve the state of liquid metallic hydrogen, a pressure of at least 200 GPa and a temperature of about 10,000 K are required (estimated).
Above the layer of metallic hydrogen lies a shell consisting of gas-liquid (in a supercritical state) hydrogen with an admixture of helium. The upper part of this shell smoothly passes into the outer layer - the atmosphere of Jupiter.
Within the framework of this simple three-layer model, there is no clear boundary between the main layers, however, the regions of phase transitions are also small in thickness. Consequently, we can assume that almost all processes are localized, which allows us to consider each layer separately.
Jupiter has a powerful magnetic field. The field strength at the level of the visible cloud surface is 14 oersteds at the north pole and 10.7 oersteds at the south pole. The dipole axis is inclined to the rotation axis by 10°, and the polarity is opposite to the polarity of the earth's magnetic field. The existence of a magnetic field is explained by the presence of metallic hydrogen in the depths of Jupiter, which, being a good conductor, rotating at high speed, creates magnetic fields.
Jupiter is surrounded by a powerful magnetosphere, which on the day side extends to a distance of 50–100 radii of the planet, and on the night side it extends beyond the orbit of Saturn. If Jupiter's magnetosphere could be seen from the surface of the Earth, its angular dimensions would exceed the dimensions of the Moon.
Compared to the Earth's magnetosphere, the Jupiter magnetosphere is not only larger in size and power, but also has a slightly different shape, and also, along with the dipole, has pronounced quadrupole and octupole components. The shape of Jupiter's magnetosphere is determined by two additional factors that are absent in the case of the Earth - the rapid rotation of Jupiter and the presence of a nearby and powerful source of magnetospheric plasma - Jupiter's satellite Io.
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Jupiter in the radio range |
Thanks to volcanic activity, Io, located at a distance of only about 4.9R J from the upper layer of the planet, supplies up to 1 ton of neutral gas rich in sulfur, sulfur dioxide, oxygen, and sodium into Jupiter’s magnetosphere every second. This gas is partially ionized and forms a plasma torus near Io's orbit.
As a result of the combined action of rapid rotation and intramagnetospheric plasma formation, additional source magnetic field - Jupiter's magnetodisk. The plasma concentrates in the core of the magnetosphere in the low-latitude region, forming a magnetodisk - a thin current layer, the value of the azimuthal current in which decreases in proportion to the distance from the planet. The total current in the magnetic disk reaches a value of about 100 million amperes.
Electrons moving in Jupiter's radiation belts are a source of powerful incoherent synchrotron radiation from the magnetosphere in the radio range.
4.14.6. General characteristics of the satellites and rings of Jupiter
It is currently known that Jupiter has 63 natural satellites and a ring system. All satellites are divided into two categories: regular and irregular.
Eight regular satellites orbit Jupiter in the direction of its rotation in almost circular orbits. Regular satellites, in turn, are divided into internal (satellites of the Amalthea group) and main (or Galilean).
Shepherd companions. The four inner satellites of Jupiter - Metis (dimensions 60 × 40 × 34 km), Adrastea (20 × 16 × 14 km), Amalthea (250 × 146 × 128 km) and Theba (116 × 98 × 84 km) - have an irregular shape and play the role of the so-called shepherd moons that keep the rings of Jupiter from disintegrating.
Rings of Jupiter. Jupiter has faint rings that are located at an altitude of 55,000 km from the atmosphere. There are two main rings and one very thin inner ring, with a characteristic orange color. The main part of the rings has a radius of 123–129 thousand km. The thickness of the rings is about 30 km. The rings are almost always edge-on towards the terrestrial observer, which is why they for a long time went unnoticed. The rings themselves consist mainly of dust and small stone particles that poorly reflect the sun's rays, and therefore they are difficult to distinguish.
Galilean satellites. The four Galilean moons of Jupiter (Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto) are among the largest moons in the Solar System. The total mass of the Galilean moons is 99.999% of all objects orbiting Jupiter (for more information on the Galilean moons, see section 4.14.7 below).
Irregular satellites. It is customary to call irregular satellites those satellites whose orbits have large eccentricities; or satellites that move in orbit in reverse direction; or satellites whose orbits are characterized by large inclinations to the equatorial plane. The irregular satellites are, apparently, asteroids captured from among the “Trojans” or “Greeks”.
Irregular satellites that orbit Jupiter in the direction of its rotation:
Themisto (does not form a family);
Himalia group (Leda, Himalia, Lysitia, Elara, S/2000 J 11);
Carpo (does not form a family).
Irregular satellites that orbit Jupiter in the opposite direction:
S/2003 J 12 (does not form a family);
Karme group (13 satellites);
Ananke group (16 satellites);
Pasiphe group (17 satellites);
S/2003 J 2 (does not form a family).
4.14.7. Galilean moons: Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto
The Galilean moons of Jupiter (Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto) were discovered by Galileo Galilei (after whom they were named) on January 8, 1610.
The Galilean satellites rotate synchronously and always face the same side towards Jupiter (i.e., they are in a 1:1 spin-orbit resonance) due to the influence of the powerful tidal forces of the giant planet. In addition, Io, Europa and Ganymede are in orbital resonance - their orbital periods are in the ratio 1:2:4. The stability of the orbital resonances of the Galilean satellites has been observed since the discovery, i.e., for 400 Earth years and more than 20 thousand “satellite” (Ganymede) years (the orbital period of Ganymede is 7.155 Earth days).
And about(average diameter - 3640 km, mass - 8.93 × 10 22 kg or 0.015 Earth mass, average density - 3.528 g / cm 3) is closer to Jupiter than other Galilean satellites (on average at a distance of 4.9R J from its surface) than , apparently, is due to its volcanic activity - the highest in the solar system. More than 10 volcanoes can erupt on Io's surface at the same time. As a result, Io's topography completely changes over the course of several hundred years. The largest eruptions of Ionian volcanoes eject matter at a speed of 1 km/s to a height of up to 300 km. Like terrestrial volcanoes, the volcanoes on Io emit sulfur and sulfur dioxide. Impact craters are practically absent on Io, as they are destroyed by constant eruptions and lava flows. In addition to volcanoes, Io has non-volcanic mountains, lakes of molten sulfur, and viscous lava flows hundreds of kilometers long. Unlike the other Galilean moons, Io has no water or ice.
Europe(diameter - 3122 km, mass - 4.80 × 10 22 kg or 0.008 Earth mass, average density - 3.01 g / cm 3) is on average located at a distance of 8.4R J from the surface of Jupiter. Europe is completely covered by a layer of water, presumably about 100 km thick (partly in the form of an icy surface crust 10–30 km thick; partly, it is believed, in the form of a subsurface liquid ocean). Further down lies the rocks, and in the center there is supposedly a small metal core. The depth of the ocean is up to 90 km, and its volume exceeds the volume of the Earth's oceans. The heat required to maintain it in a liquid state is presumably generated due to tidal interactions (in particular, tides raise the surface of the satellite to a height of up to 30 meters). The surface of Europa is very flat, with only a few hill-like formations being several hundred meters high. The high albedo (0.67) of the satellite indicates that the surface ice is quite clean. The number of craters is small; there are only three craters with a diameter greater than 5 km.
Jupiter's strong magnetic field causes electric currents in Europa's salty ocean, which form its unusual magnetic field.
The magnetic poles are located near the equator of the satellite and are constantly shifting. Changes in field strength and orientation correlate with Europa's passage through Jupiter's magnetic field. It is believed that life may exist in Europa's ocean.
There are basically two types of regions on the surface of Ganymede: very old, heavily cratered dark regions and younger (but also ancient) light regions marked by extended rows of ridges and notches. The origin of the light regions is obviously associated with tectonic processes. Numerous impact craters are present on both types of Ganymede’s surface, which indicates their antiquity - up to 3–3.5 billion years (similar to the lunar surface).
Callisto(diameter - 4821 km, mass - 1.08 × 10 23 kg or 0.018 Earth mass, average density - 1.83 g / cm 3) is on average located at a distance of 25.3R J from the surface of Jupiter. Callisto is one of the most cratered bodies in the Solar System. Consequently, the surface of the satellite is very old (about 4 billion years), and its geological activity is extremely low. Callisto has the lowest density of all the Galilean moons (a trend is observed: the further the satellite is from Jupiter, the lower its density) and consists of probably 60% ice and water and 40% rock and iron. It is assumed that Callisto is covered with an ice crust 200 km thick, under which there is a layer of water about 10 km thick. The deeper layers appear to consist of compressed rocks and ice, with a gradual increase in rock and iron towards the center.
Additional literature:
T. Owen, S. Atreya, H. Nieman. “Sudden guess”: the first results of sounding the atmosphere of Titan by the Huygens spacecraft
Basic data
| An object | radius orbits, million km. Planet Jupiter brief description |
orbital circulation period |
radius, thousand km | weight, kg | circulation period around its axis, days |
free fall acceleration, g | surface temperature, K |
| Sun | — | — | 695 | 2*10^30 | 24,6 | ||
| Mercury | 58 | 88 days | 2,4 | 3,3*10^23 | 58,6 | 0,38 | 440 |
| Venus | 108 | 225 days | 6,1 | 4,9*10^24 | 243 (arr.) | 0,91 | 730 |
| Earth | 150 | 365 days | 6,4 | 6*10^24 | 1 | 1 | 287 |
| Mars | 228 | 687 days | 3,4 | 6,4*10^23 | 1,03 | 0,38 | 218 |
| Jupiter | 778 | 12 years | 71 | 1,9*10^27 | 0,41 | 2,4 | 120 |
| Saturn | 1429 | 29 years | 60 | 5,7*10^26 | 0,45 | 0,92 | 88 |
| Uranus | 2871 | 84 years old | 26 | 8,7*10^25 | 0.72 (rev) | 0,89 | 59 |
| Neptune | 4504 | 165 years | 25 | 1,0*10^26 | 0,67 | 1,1 | 48 |
The largest satellites of the planets
| An object | radius orbits, thousand km. |
orbital circulation period, days |
radius, km | weight, kg | revolves around |
| Gannymede | 1070 | 7,2 | 2634 | 1,5*10^23 | Jupiter |
| Titanium | 1222 | 16 | 2575 | 1,4*10^23 | Saturn |
| Callisto | 1883 | 16,7 | 2403 | 1,1*10^23 | Jupiter |
| And about | 422 | 1,8 | 1821 | 8,9*10^22 | Jupiter |
| Moon | 384 | 27,3 | 1738 | 7,4*10^22 | Earth |
| Europe | 671 | 3,6 | 1565 | 4,8*10^22 | Jupiter |
| Triton | 355 | 5.9 (arr.) | 1353 | 2,2*10^22 | Neptune |
obr - rotates in the direction opposite to the orbital movement
Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system, its diameter is 11 times the diameter of the Earth, and its mass is 318 times the mass of the Earth. Jupiter's orbit around the Sun takes 12 years, while the average distance to the Sun is 800 million km. The cloud belts in the atmosphere and the Great Red Spot make Jupiter a very picturesque planet.
Jupiter is not a rocky planet. Unlike the four rocky planets closest to the Sun, Jupiter is a huge ball of gas. There are three more gas giants that are even further away from the Sun: Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. In my own way chemical composition these gas planets are very similar to the Sun and very different from the rocky ones inner planets Solar system. Jupiter's atmosphere, for example, is 85 percent hydrogen and about 14 percent helium. Although we can't see any solid, rocky surface through Jupiter's clouds, deep inside the planet the hydrogen is under such pressure that it takes on some of the characteristics of a metal.
Jupiter rotates on its axis extremely quickly - it makes one revolution every 10 hours. The rotation speed is so high that the planet bulges along the equator. This rapid rotation is also the cause of very strong winds in the upper atmosphere, where clouds stretch out into long, colorful ribbons. Different parts of the atmosphere rotate at slightly different speeds, and it is this difference that gives rise to cloud bands. The clouds over Jupiter are heterogeneous and stormy, so appearance cloud bands can change in just a few days. In addition, the clouds of Jupiter contain a very large number of vortices and large spots. The largest of them is the so-called Great Red Spot, which is larger than the Earth. It can be seen even through a small telescope. The Great Red Spot is a huge storm in Jupiter's atmosphere that has been observed for 300 years. There are at least 16 moons in orbit around Jupiter. One of
them, is the largest satellite in our solar system; it is larger than the planet Mercury.
Travels to Jupiter
Five spacecraft have already been sent to Jupiter. The fifth of these, Galileo, was launched on a six-year journey in October 1989. The Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 spacecraft made measurements for the first time. They were followed by the two Voyager spacecraft, which in 1979 provided close-up photographs that are simply breathtaking. After 1991, the Hubble Space Telescope began photographing Jupiter, and these images are not inferior in quality to those taken by Voyagers. In addition, the Hubble Space Telescope will take photographs for several years, while Voyagers had only a short period of time at their disposal while they flew past Jupiter.
Clouds of poisonous gas
The dark, reddish stripes on Jupiter are called belts, and the lighter stripes are called zones. Photos taken spaceships and the Hubble Space Telescope, it tingles that in just a few weeks noticeable changes occur in the belts and butts. This is due to the fact that visible to us character traits Jupiter is actually the colored and white clouds of the upper atmosphere. Near the Great Red Spot, clouds form beautiful patterns with vortices and waves. Clouds spinning in vortices are blown away along the stripes by strong winds, the speed of which exceeds 500 km/h.
Much of Jupiter's atmosphere would be harmful to humans. In addition to the predominant gases - hydrogen and helium - it also contains methane, poisonous ammonia, water vapor and acetylene. You would find such a place smelly. This gas composition is similar to that of the sun.
White clouds contain crystals of frozen ammonia and water ice. Brown, red and blue clouds may have their color chemicals, similar to our dyes, or sulfur. Thunderstorm lightning can be seen through the outer layers of the atmosphere.
The active cloud layer is quite thin, less than one hundredth the radius of the planet. Below the clouds the temperature gradually increases. And although on the surface of the cloud layer it is -160 ° C, descending through the atmosphere only 60 km, we would find the same temperature as on the surface of the Earth. And a little deeper, the temperature already reaches the boiling point of water.
Unusual substance
In the depths of Jupiter, matter begins to carry itself in a very unusual way. Although it cannot be ruled out that there is a small iron core in the center of the planet, still the largest part the deep region consists of hydrogen. Inside the planet, under enormous pressure, hydrogen turns from a gas into a liquid. At deeper and deeper levels, pressure continues to try due to the colossal weight of the overlying layers of the atmosphere.
At a depth of about 100 km there is a vast ocean of liquid hydrogen. Below 17,000 km, hydrogen becomes so compressed that its atoms are destroyed. And then it begins to behave like metal; in this state it easily conducts electricity. Electric current flowing through metallic hydrogen creates a strong magnetic field around Jupiter.
Metallic hydrogen in the depths of Jupiter is an example of an unusual type of matter that astronomers can study that is almost impossible to reproduce in the laboratory.
Almost a star
Jupiter releases more energy than it receives from the Sun. Measurements made by spacecraft have shown that Jupiter emits about 60 percent more thermal energy than it receives from solar radiation.
It is believed that additional heat comes from three sources: from heat reserves remaining from the formation of Jupiter; silt of energy released in the process of slow compression, contraction of the planet; and, finally, from the energy of radioactive decay.
Planet Jupiter
This heat, however, does not arise from the cessation of hydrogen into helium, as happens in stars. In fact, even the smallest stars using the energy of such termination are approximately 80 times more massive than Jupiter. This means that other “solar systems” may have planets larger than Jupiter, although smaller than the star.
Radio station Jupiter
Jupiter is a natural radio station. No meaning can be extracted from Jupiter's radio signals, since they consist entirely of noise. These radio signals are created by electrons rushing through Jupiter's very strong magnetic field. Powerful storms and lightning discharges are superimposed on the chaotic radio roar. Jupiter has a strong magnetic field that extends 50 planet diameters in all directions. No other planet in the solar system has such strong magnetism or produces such powerful radio emission.
Moons of Jupiter
The family of 16 moons of Jupiter is like a miniature solar system, where Jupiter plays the role of the Sun, and its magnifying glasses play the role of the planets. The largest moon is Ganymede, its diameter is 5262 km. It is covered with a thick crust of ice lying on top of a rocky core. There are numerous traces of meteorite bombardment, as well as evidence of a collision with a giant asteroid 4 billion years ago.
Callisto is almost as large as Ganymede, and its entire surface is densely dotted with craters. Europe has the lightest surface. One-fifth of Europe consists of water, which forms an ice shell 100 km thick on it. This icy coating reflects light as strongly as the clouds of Venus.
Of all the loops, the most picturesque is Io, which rotates closest to Jupiter. Io's cyst is completely unusual - it is a mixture of black, red and yellow. This amazing color is explained by the fact that a large amount of sulfur was erupted from the depths of Io. Voyager's cameras showed several active volcanoes on Io; they emit fountains of sulfur 200 km high above the surface. Sulfur lava flies out at a speed of 1000 m and a second. Some of this lava material escapes from Io's zero gravity and forms a ring encircling Jupiter.
The surface of Io was grinding. We can tell about this because it almost has the appearance of meteorite craters. Io's orbit is less than 400,000 km from Jupiter. Therefore, Io is subject to enormous tidal forces. The constant alternation of stretching and compressing tides inside Io generates intense internal friction. Thanks to this, the inner regions remain hot and molten, despite Io's great distance from the Sun.
In addition to four large moons, Jupiter also has small “lups”. Four of them fly lower above Jupiter's surface than Io, and scientists believe they are simply large pieces of other moons that have ceased to exist.
Those who at least once in the evening carefully observed the stars could not help but notice a bright point, which with its brilliance and size stands out from the rest. This is not a distant star, whose light takes millions of years to reach us. This is Jupiter shining - the largest planet in the solar system. At times of closest approach to the Earth, this celestial body becomes most noticeable, inferior in brightness to our other cosmic companions - Venus and the Moon.
The largest of the planets in our solar system became known to people many thousands of years ago. The name of the planet alone speaks volumes about its significance for human civilization: out of respect for the size of the heavenly body, the ancient Romans gave it a name in honor of the main ancient deity - Jupiter.
Giant planet, its main features
Studying the solar system within the visibility range, a person immediately noticed the presence of a huge space object in the night sky. Initially, it was believed that one of the brightest objects in the night sky was a wandering star, but over time, the different nature of this celestial body became clear. The high brightness of Jupiter is explained by its colossal size and reaches its maximum values during the planet's approach to the Earth. The light of the giant planet is -2.94 m in apparent magnitude, losing in brightness only to the brilliance of the Moon and Venus.
The first description of Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system, dates back to the 8th-7th centuries BC. e. Even the ancient Babylonians observed a bright star in the sky, personifying it with the supreme god Marduk, the patron saint of Babylon. In later times, the ancient Greeks and then the Romans considered Jupiter, together with Venus, one of the main luminaries of the celestial sphere. The Germanic tribes endowed the giant planet with mystical divine powers, giving it a name in honor of their main god Donar. Moreover, almost all astrologers, astrologers and predictors of antiquity always took into account the position of Jupiter and the brightness of its light in their predictions and reports. In later times, when the level of technical equipment made it possible to more accurately observe space, it turned out that Jupiter clearly stands out in comparison with other planets of the solar system.
The actual size of a small bright point on our night sky has enormous significance. The radius of Jupiter in the equatorial zone is 71,490 km. Compared to Earth, the diameter of the gas giant is slightly less than 140 thousand km. This is 11 times the diameter of our planet. Such grandiose size corresponds to mass. The giant has a mass of 1.8986x1027 kg and weighs 2.47 times more than the total mass of the remaining seven planets, comets and asteroids belonging to the Solar System.
The mass of the Earth is 5.97219x1024 kg, which is 315 times less than the mass of Jupiter.
However, the “king of the planets” is not in all respects the most major planet. Despite its size and enormous mass, Jupiter is 4.16 times less dense than our planet, 1326 kg/m3 and 5515 kg/m3, respectively. This is explained by the fact that our planet is a rocky ball with a heavy inner core. Jupiter is a dense accumulation of gases, the density of which is correspondingly less than the density of any solid body.
Another interesting fact. With a fairly low density, the gravity on the surface of the gas giant is 2.4 times higher than terrestrial parameters. The acceleration of gravity on Jupiter will be 24.79 m/s2 (the same value on Earth is 9.8 m/s2). All presented astrophysical parameters of the planet are determined by its composition and structure. Unlike the first four planets, Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars, which are classified as terrestrial objects, Jupiter leads the cohort of gas giants. Like Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, the largest planet known to us does not have a solid surface.
The current three-layer model of the planet gives an idea of what Jupiter really is. Behind the outer gaseous shell that makes up the atmosphere of the gas giant is a layer of water ice. This is where the transparent part of the planet, visible to optical instruments, ends. It is technically impossible to determine what color the surface of the planet is. Even with the help of the Hubble Space Telescope, scientists were able to view only the upper layer of the atmosphere of a huge ball of gas.
Further, if you move towards the surface, a dark and hot world appears, which consists of ammonia crystals and dense metallic hydrogen. High temperatures (6000-21000 K) and enormous pressure exceeding 4000 GPa dominate here. The only solid element of the planet's structure is the rocky core. The presence of a rocky core, which has a small diameter compared to the size of the planet, gives the planet hydrodynamic equilibrium. It is thanks to him that the laws of conservation of mass and energy operate on Jupiter, keeping the giant in orbit and forcing it to rotate around its own axis. This giant does not have a clearly visible boundary between the atmosphere and the central, rest of the planet. In the scientific community, it is customary to consider the conditional surface of the planet, where the pressure is 1 bar.
The pressure in the upper layers of Jupiter's atmosphere is low and amounts to only 1 atm. But the kingdom of cold reigns here, since the temperature does not drop below 130°C.
The atmosphere of Jupiter contains a huge amount of hydrogen, which is slightly diluted with helium and admixtures of ammonia and methane. This explains the colorfulness of the clouds that densely cover the planet. Scientists believe that such an accumulation of hydrogen occurred during the formation of the Solar System. Harder cosmic matter, under the influence of centrifugal forces, went into the formation of terrestrial planets, while lighter free gas molecules, under the influence of the same physical laws, began to accumulate into clumps. These gas particles became the building material from which all four giant planets are made.
The presence of such quantities of hydrogen on the planet, which is the basic element of water, suggests the existence of huge quantities of water resources on Jupiter. In practice, it turns out that sudden temperature changes and physical conditions on the planet do not allow water molecules to pass from a gaseous and solid state to a liquid.
Astrophysical parameters of Jupiter
The fifth planet is also interesting for its astrophysical parameters. Being behind the asteroid belt, Jupiter conventionally divides the solar system into two parts, exerting a strong influence on everything space objects that are within his sphere of influence. The closest planet to Jupiter is Mars, which is constantly under the influence of the magnetic field and gravitational force of the huge planet. Jupiter's orbit has the shape of a regular ellipse and a slight eccentricity, only 0.0488. In this regard, Jupiter remains at the same distance from our star almost all the time. At perihelion, the planet is located at the center of the solar system at a distance of 740.5 million km, and at aphelion, Jupiter is at a distance from the Sun of 816.5 million km.
The giant moves quite slowly around the Sun. Its speed is only 13 km/s, while that of the Earth is almost three times higher (29.78 km/s). Jupiter completes its entire journey around our central star in 12 years. The speed of the planet’s movement around its own axis and the speed of the planet’s movement in orbit are strongly influenced by Jupiter’s neighbor, the huge Saturn.
The position of the planet’s axis is also surprising from the point of view of astrophysics. The equatorial plane of Jupiter is tilted from the orbital axis by only 3.13°. On our Earth, the axial deviation from the orbital plane is 23.45°. The planet seems to be lying on its side. Despite this, Jupiter rotates around its own axis at enormous speed, which leads to a natural compression of the planet. According to this indicator, the gas giant is the fastest in our star system. Jupiter rotates around its own axis for just under 10 hours. To be more precise, a cosmic day on the surface of the gas giant is 9 hours 55 minutes, while the Jovian year lasts 10,475 Earth days. Due to such features of the location of the rotation axis, there are no changes in seasons on Jupiter.
At the point of closest approach, Jupiter is at a distance of 740 million km from our planet. Modern space probes flying in outer space at a speed of 40,000 kilometers per hour overcome this path in different ways. The first spacecraft towards Jupiter, Pioneer 10, was launched in March 1972. The last of the devices launched towards Jupiter was the automatic Juno probe. The space probe was launched on August 5, 2011 and only five years later, in the summer of 2020, it reached the orbit of the “king planet”. During the flight, the Juno spacecraft traveled a distance of 2.8 billion km.
Moons of the planet Jupiter: why are there so many of them?
It is not difficult to guess that such an impressive size of the planet determines the presence of a large retinue. In count natural satellites Jupiter has no equal. There are 69 of them. This set also contains real giants, comparable in size to a full-fledged planet and very small, barely noticeable with the help of telescopes. Jupiter also has its own rings, similar to the ring system of Saturn. The rings of Jupiter are the smallest particle elements captured by the planet’s magnetic field directly from space during the formation of the planet.
Such a large number of satellites is explained by the fact that Jupiter has the strongest magnetic field, which has a huge impact on all neighboring objects. The gravitational force of the gas giant is so strong that it allows Jupiter to hold such a large family of satellites around it. In addition, the action of the planet’s magnetic field is quite enough to attract all wandering space objects. Jupiter performs the function of a cosmic shield in the solar system, catching outer space comets and large asteroids. The relatively calm existence of the inner planets is explained precisely by this factor. The magnetosphere of the huge planet is several times more powerful than the Earth’s magnetic field.
Galileo Galilei first became acquainted with the satellites of the gas giant in 1610. Through his telescope, the scientist saw four satellites at once moving around a huge planet. This fact confirmed the idea of a heliocentric model of the solar system.
The size of these satellites is amazing, they can even compete with some planets of the solar system. For example, the satellite Ganymede is larger in size than Mercury, the smallest planet in the solar system. Not far behind Mercury is another giant satellite, Callisto. Distinctive feature Jupiter's satellite system is that all planets orbiting the gas giant have a solid structure.
The sizes of the most famous moons of Jupiter are as follows:
- Ganymede has a diameter of 5260 km (Mercury's diameter is 4879 km);
- Callisto has a diameter of 4820 km;
- Io's diameter is 3642 km;
- Europe's diameter is 3122 km.
Some satellites are closer to the mother planet, others are further away. The history of the appearance of such large natural satellites has not yet been revealed. We are probably dealing with small planets that once orbited Jupiter in the neighborhood. Small satellites are fragments of destroyed comets arriving in the Solar System from the Oort cloud. An example is the impact of Comet Shoemaker-Levy on Jupiter, observed in 1994.
It is the satellites of Jupiter that are objects of interest to scientists, since they are more accessible and similar in structure to the terrestrial planets. The gas giant itself represents an environment hostile to humanity, where the existence of any known forms of life is unimaginable.
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Characteristics of the planet:
- Distance from the Sun: ~ 778.3 million km
- Planet diameter: 143,000 km*
- Day on the planet: 9h 50min 30s**
- Year on the planet: 11.86 years***
- t° on the surface: -150°C
- Atmosphere: 82% hydrogen; 18% helium and minor traces of other elements
- Satellites: 16
* diameter along the planet's equator
**period of rotation around its own axis (in Earth days)
***period of orbit around the Sun (in Earth days)
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun. It is located at a distance of 5.2 astronomical years from the Sun, which is approximately 775 million km. The planets of the Solar System are divided by astronomers into two conditional groups: terrestrial planets and gas giants. The largest planet from the group of gas giants is Jupiter.
Presentation: planet Jupiter
The size of Jupiter exceeds the size of the Earth by 318 times, and if it were even larger by about 60 times, it would have every chance of becoming a star due to spontaneous thermonuclear reaction. The planet's atmosphere is approximately 85% hydrogen. The remaining 15% is mainly helium with admixtures of ammonia and sulfur and phosphorus compounds. Jupiter's atmosphere also contains methane.
By using spectral analysis It was found that there is no oxygen on the planet, therefore, there is no water - the basis of life. According to another hypothesis, there is still ice in the atmosphere of Jupiter. Perhaps no other planet in our system causes so much controversy. scientific world. There are especially many hypotheses related to the internal structure of Jupiter. Recent studies of the planet using spacecraft have made it possible to create a model that allows high degree reliability to judge its structure.
Internal structure
The planet is a spheroid, quite strongly compressed from the poles. It has a strong magnetic field that extends millions of kilometers beyond its orbit. The atmosphere is an alternation of layers with different physical properties. Scientists suggest that Jupiter has a solid core 1 - 1.5 times the diameter of the Earth, but much denser. Its presence has not yet been proven, but it has not been refuted either.
Atmosphere and surface
The upper layer of Jupiter's atmosphere consists of a mixture of hydrogen and helium gases and has a thickness of 8 - 20 thousand km. In the next layer, the thickness of which is 50 - 60 thousand km, due to increased pressure, the gas mixture turns into a liquid state. In this layer, the temperature can reach 20,000 C. Even lower (at a depth of 60 - 65 thousand km) hydrogen transforms into a metallic state. This process is accompanied by an increase in temperature to 200,000 C. At the same time, the pressure reaches fantastic values of 5,000,000 atmospheres. Metallic hydrogen is a hypothetical substance characterized by the presence of free electrons and conducts electric current, as is characteristic of metals.
Moons of the planet Jupiter
The largest planet in the solar system has 16 natural satellites. Four of them, which Galileo spoke about, have their own unique world. One of them, the satellite Io, has amazing landscapes of rocky formations with real volcanoes on which the Galileo apparatus, which studied the satellites, captured a volcanic eruption. The largest satellite in the Solar System, Ganymede, although smaller in diameter than the satellites of Saturn, Titan and Neptune, Triton, has an icy crust that covers the surface of the satellite with a thickness of 100 km. There is an assumption that there is water under the thick layer of ice. Also, a hypothesis is put forward about the existence of an underground ocean on the Europa satellite, which also consists of a thick layer of ice; faults are clearly visible in the photographs, as if from icebergs. And the oldest inhabitant of the Solar System can rightfully be considered Jupiter’s satellite Calisto; there are more craters on its surface than on any other surface of other objects in the Solar System, and the surface has not changed much over the last billion years.
