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Jupiter

Jupiter is the largest planet in the Solar System, with a mass over 2.5 times that of all other planets combined. It is composed primarily of hydrogen and helium. Jupiter has been explored by several spacecraft, most notably the Pioneer, Voyager, Galileo, and Juno missions. These probes have revealed that Jupiter has a prominent Great Red Spot, colorful atmospheric bands, and over 69 moons including the large Galilean moons. Future exploration may include studies of Europa's subsurface ocean.

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31 views

Jupiter

Jupiter is the largest planet in the Solar System, with a mass over 2.5 times that of all other planets combined. It is composed primarily of hydrogen and helium. Jupiter has been explored by several spacecraft, most notably the Pioneer, Voyager, Galileo, and Juno missions. These probes have revealed that Jupiter has a prominent Great Red Spot, colorful atmospheric bands, and over 69 moons including the large Galilean moons. Future exploration may include studies of Europa's subsurface ocean.

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Anonymous Xak6PI3Y
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System.

It is a giant planet 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 and Saturn are gas giants; the other two giant planets, Uranus and Neptune
are ice giants. Jupiter has been known to astronomers since antiquity.[13] The Romans named it after
their god Jupiter.[14] When viewed from Earth, Jupiter can reach an apparent magnitude of −2.94,
bright enough for its reflected light to cast shadows,[15] and making it on average the third-brightest
object in the night sky after the Moon and Venus.

Jupiter is primarily composed of hydrogen with a quarter of its mass being helium, though helium
comprises only about a tenth of the number of molecules. It may also have a rocky core of heavier
elements,[16] but like the other giant planets, Jupiter lacks a well-defined solid surface. Because of its
rapid rotation, the planet's shape is that of an oblate spheroid (it has a slight but noticeable bulge
around the equator). The outer atmosphere is visibly segregated into several bands at different
latitudes, resulting in turbulence and storms along their interacting boundaries. A prominent result is
the Great Red Spot, a giant storm that is known to have existed since at least the 17th century when it
was first seen by telescope. Surrounding Jupiter is a faint planetary ring system and a powerful
magnetosphere. Jupiter has at least 69 moons,[17] including the four large Galilean moons discovered
by Galileo Galilei in 1610. Ganymede, the largest of these, has a diameter greater than that of the planet
Mercury.

Jupiter has been explored on several occasions by robotic spacecraft, most notably during the early
Pioneer and Voyager flyby missions and later by the Galileo orbiter. In late February 2007, Jupiter was
visited by the New Horizons probe, which used Jupiter's gravity to increase its speed and bend its
trajectory en route to Pluto. The latest probe to visit the planet is Juno, which entered into orbit around
Jupiter on July 4, 2016.[18][19] Future targets for exploration in the Jupiter system include the probable
ice-covered liquid ocean of its moon Europa.

Jupiter's mass is 2.5 times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined—this is so
massive that its barycenter with the Sun lies above the Sun's surface at 1.068 solar radii from the
Sun's center.[28] Jupiter is much larger than Earth and considerably less dense: its volume is that of
about 1,321 Earths, but it is only 318 times as massive.[5][29] Jupiter's radius is about 1/10 the radius
of the Sun,[30] and its mass is 0.001 times the mass of the Sun, so the densities of the two bodies are
similar.[31] A "Jupiter mass" (MJ or MJup) is often used as a unit to describe masses of other objects,
particularly extrasolar planets and brown dwarfs. So, for example, the extrasolar planet HD 209458
b has a mass of 0.69 MJ, while Kappa Andromedae b has a mass of 12.8 MJ.[32]

Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System after
Mercury. In English, Mars carries a name of the Roman god of war, and is often referred to as the "Red
Planet"[14][15] because the reddish iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance
that is distinctive among the astronomical bodies visible to the naked eye.[16] Mars is a terrestrial
planet with a thin atmosphere, having surface features reminiscent both of the impact craters of the
Moon and the valleys, deserts, and polar ice caps of Earth.

The rotational period and seasonal cycles of Mars are likewise similar to those of Earth, as is the tilt that
produces the seasons. Mars is the site of Olympus Mons, the largest volcano and second-highest known
mountain in the Solar System, and of Valles Marineris, one of the largest canyons in the Solar System.
The smooth Borealis basin in the northern hemisphere covers 40% of the planet and may be a giant
impact feature.[17][18] Mars has two moons, Phobos and Deimos, which are small and irregularly
shaped. These may be captured asteroids,[19][20] similar to 5261 Eureka, a Mars trojan.

There are ongoing investigations assessing the past habitability potential of Mars, as well as the
possibility of extant life. Future astrobiology missions are planned, including the Mars 2020 and ExoMars
rovers.[21][22][23][24] Liquid water cannot exist on the surface of Mars due to low atmospheric
pressure, which is less than 1% of the Earth's,[25] except at the lowest elevations for short
periods.[26][27] The two polar ice caps appear to be made largely of water.[28][29] The volume of water
ice in the south polar ice cap, if melted, would be sufficient to cover the entire planetary surface to a
depth of 11 meters (36 ft).[30] In November 2016, NASA reported finding a large amount of
underground ice in the Utopia Planitia region of Mars. The volume of water detected has been
estimated to be equivalent to the volume of water in Lake Superior.[31][32][33]

Mars can easily be seen from Earth with the naked eye, as can its reddish coloring. Its apparent
magnitude reaches −2.91,[8] which is surpassed only by Jupiter, Venus, the Moon, and the Sun. Optical
ground-based telescopes are typically limited to resolving features about 300 kilometers (190 mi) across
when Earth and Mars are closest because of Earth's atmosphere.[34]

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