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Jupiter – 10 interesting facts about the largest planet in the solar system with a photo: star or planet, rotation speed, More Red Spot, rings and satellites.

Jupiter was not just named after the supreme deity of Rome. This is a massive object with a powerful magnetic field and a huge number of satellites. The advent of telescopes space missions told a lot of interesting things about Jupiter. Think you know everything? The planet Jupiter is able to provide Interesting Facts.

It's a massive planet

Jupiter is considered the most big planet in the solar system. But this description is not enough. First of all, it is 318 times more massive than the Earth and 2.5 times more massive than all the planets combined.

But what is interesting is that if it were even more massive, it would begin to decrease. The fact is that the density would increase, which would make it shrink into itself.

Jupiter can't become a star

Such planets can be called failed stars, but still Jupiter does not quite correspond to a star. It is also rich in hydrogen and helium, but its mass is not enough to activate nuclear fusion. This is how stars create energy. For Jupiter to repeat this fate, it needs to increase its mass by 70 times.

This is the fastest planet

Despite its scale, Jupiter manages to quickly accelerate. His axial rotation takes 10 hours at a rate of 12.6 km / s. Because of this, the planet is slightly flattened at the poles. In fact, points on the equatorial line are located 4600 km farther from the center than the poles. Rapid rotation helps to form a magnetic field.

The clouds extend for 50 km

The beautiful cloud formations we observe are 50 km thick. Represented by ammonia crystals, divided into two cloud layers. It is believed that the darker ones are compounds rising from the planetary depths. When they react with the sun's rays, they change their original light.

Great Red Spot

Interesting facts about Jupiter for children and adults are not complete without mentioning this feature. This is almost business card gas giant. We are talking about the anticyclonic storm Great Red Spot, located south of the equatorial line. It covers 24,000 km in diameter, and stretches up to 12,000-14,000 km. Such scales allow placing several lands on its territory. It has been observed as far back as the 17th century.

It was recorded by Giovanni Cassini in 1665. In the 20th century, it was thought to have been shaped by atmospheric activity on the planet. This was confirmed by the flyby of Voyager 1 in 1979. But they also noted that the formation is losing its size. In the 17th century it extended for 40,000 km. Scientists do not know if the Great Red Spot will disappear completely, but they think that a new one will form in its place.

There are two rings

If a we are talking about rings, we immediately imagine Saturn. But Jupiter and Uranus also acquired this feature. True, the rings of Jupiter are too weak and are represented by a halo, a bright main and outer ring.

It is believed that the rings were formed from material ejected by satellites when they collided with meteorites. It accumulated in orbit and merged under the influence of strong gravity.

The magnetic field is 14 times stronger than the earth's

Take a compass to Jupiter and you will notice that it works. The fact is that the planet has the most powerful magnetic field created by eddy currents inside the liquid metallic hydrogen core. It captures particles of sulfur dioxide from volcanic eruptions And about.

Contact of the magnetosphere with the solar wind leads to shock wave that could damage the device. The four largest satellites are located under the protection of the magnetosphere, so it will be difficult to create posts on their surface.

Holds 67 satellites

Yes, this planet has as many as 67 satellites, as well as 200, whose diameter is less than 10 km. They were able to find them in 1975 with the arrival of Pioneer 10. But everyone remembers only the 4 largest found by Galileo. These are Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. The largest is Ganymede, whose diameter covers 5262 km.

They flew to Jupiter 7 times

Pioneer 10 arrived for the first time in 1973, later Pioneer 11 (1974). In 1979, two Voyagers flew by. In 1992 - Ulysses, in 2000 - Cassini, who was heading towards Saturn. And in 2007, New Horizons raced.

Can be found without tools

This is a bright object, which, due to its scale, can be shown in a direct view. Most likely you saw it, but did not understand it. It seems as if you are looking at a bright star. But even binoculars will show faint spots of light around it - Galileo's moons.

Now you know interesting facts about Jupiter. Be sure to visit the rest of the links for more fascinating information about the largest planet in the solar system and admire photos of its features.

Jupiter is one of the planets in the solar system. Perhaps Jupiter can be called the most mysterious and mysterious planet. Between Saturn and Mars, you can see the fifth planet of the solar system. Jupiter is considered the largest planet in the solar system. At least, mankind does not know of any planets that would be larger than Jupiter in size. Therefore, we suggest further reading more interesting and amazing facts about the planet Jupiter.

1. Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system. In volume, Jupiter exceeds the Earth by 1300 times, and in gravity - by 317 times.

2. Jupiter is located between Mars and Saturn and is the fifth planet of the solar system.

3. The planet was named after the supreme god of Roman mythology - Jupiter.

4. The force of gravity on Jupiter is 2.5 times greater than the earth's.

5. In 1992, a comet approached Jupiter, which broke the powerful gravitational field of the planet into many fragments at a distance of 15 thousand km from the planet.

6. Jupiter is the fastest planet in the solar system.

7. It takes Jupiter 10 hours to make a revolution around its axis.

8. Jupiter makes a revolution around the sun in 12 years.

9. Jupiter has the strongest magnetic field. The strength of its action exceeds the earth's magnetic field by 14 times.

10. The force of radiation on Jupiter can harm spacecraft that get too close to the planet.

11. Jupiter has the most big number satellites from all the studied planets - 67.

12. Most of the moons of Jupiter are small in diameter and reach 4 km.

13. The most famous satellites of Jupiter are Callisto, Europa, Io, Ganymede. They were discovered by Galileo Galilei.

14. The names of the satellites of Jupiter are not accidental, they are named after the lovers of the god Jupiter.

15. The largest satellite of Jupiter is Gynimede. It is over 5,000 km in diameter.

16. Jupiter's moon Io is covered with mountains and volcanoes. This is the second known cosmic body with active volcanoes. The first is the Earth.

17. Europa - another satellite of Jupiter - consists of water ice, under which an ocean larger than the earth's can be hidden.

18. Callisto is supposed to consist of a dark stone, as it has practically no reflectivity.

19. Jupiter is almost entirely composed of hydrogen and helium, while it has a solid core. In terms of its chemical composition, Jupiter is very close to the Sun.

20. The atmosphere of this giant also consists of helium and hydrogen. It has an orange color due to sulfur and phosphorus compounds.

21. Jupiter has an atmospheric vortex that looks like a huge red spot. This spot was first noticed by Cassini in 1665. Then the length of the vortex was about 40 thousand kilometers, today this figure has halved. The rotation speed of the vortex is about 400 km/h.

22. From time to time the atmospheric vortex on Jupiter completely disappears.

23. Storms regularly occur on Jupiter. About 500 km/h speed of vortex flows.

24. Most often, the duration of storms does not exceed 4 days. However, sometimes they drag on for long months.

25. Once every 15 years, very strong hurricanes occur on Jupiter, which would destroy everything in their path, if there was something to destroy, and are accompanied by lightning, which cannot be compared in strength with lightning on Earth.

26. Jupiter, like Saturn, has so-called rings. They arise from the collision of the giant's satellites with meteors, as a result of which a large number of dust and dirt. The presence of rings around Jupiter was established in 1979, and they were discovered by the Voyager 1 spacecraft.

27. The main ring of Jupiter is even. It is 30 km long and 6400 km wide.

28. Halo - an inner cloud - reaches a thickness of 20,000 km. The halo is located between the main and final rings of the planet and consists of solid dark particles.

29. The third ring of Jupiter is also called the cobweb, as it has a transparent structure. In fact, it consists of the smallest fragments of Jupiter's moons.

30. Today, Jupiter has 4 rings.

31. The atmosphere of Jupiter has a very low concentration of water.

32. Astronomer Carl Sagan suggested that life is possible in the upper atmosphere of Jupiter. This hypothesis was put forward in the 70s. To date, the hypothesis has not been proven.

33. In the atmospheric layer of Jupiter, which contains clouds of water vapor, pressure and temperature are favorable for water-hydrocarbon life.

Jupiter's cloud belt

34. Galileo, Voyager 1, Voyager 2, Pioneer 10, Pioneer 11, Ulysses, Cassini and New Horizons - 8 spacecraft that visited Jupiter.

35. Pioneer 10 is the first spacecraft to visit Jupiter. The Juno probe was launched towards Jupiter in 2011 and is expected to reach the planet in 2016.

36. The light of Jupiter is much brighter than Sirius, the brightest star in the sky. On a cloudless night, with a small telescope or good binoculars, you can see not only Jupiter, but also 4 of its satellites.

37. Diamond rains on Jupiter.

38. If Jupiter were at the distance of the Moon from the Earth, then we could see it like this.

39. The shape of the planet is slightly compressed from the poles and slightly convex at the equator.

40. The core of Jupiter is close in size to the Earth, but its mass is 10 times less.

41. The closest location of Jupiter to the Earth is approximately 588 million kilometers, and the farthest distance is 968 million kilometers.

42. At its closest point from the Sun, Jupiter is at a distance of 740 million km, and at its farthest - 816 million km.

43. The Galileo spacecraft took more than 6 years to reach Jupiter.

44. The Voyager 1 spacecraft took only two years to reach the orbit of Jupiter.

45. The New Horizons mission boasts the fastest flight to Jupiter - just over a year.

46. Medium radius Jupiter is 69911 km.

47. The diameter of Jupiter at the equator is 142,984 km.

48. The diameter at the poles of Jupiter is slightly smaller and has a length of about 133,700 km.

50. In order to become a star, Jupiter lacks mass. Although it is the largest planet in the solar system.

51. If we imagine the situation that a person jumped from a parachute, then on Jupiter he could never find a place to land.

52. The layers that make up the planet are nothing but the superimposition of gases on top of each other.

53. According to scientists, the core of the gas giant is surrounded by metallic and molecular hydrogen. It is not possible to obtain more accurate information about the structure of Jupiter.

54. Jupiter's troposphere contains water, hydrosulfite and ammonia, which form the planet's famous white and red bands.

55. The red bands of Jupiter are hot, and they are called belts; the planet's white bands are cold and are called zones.

56. In southern hemisphere scientists often observe a picture that white stripes completely cover red ones.

57. Temperatures in the troposphere range from -160°C to -100°C.

58. Jupiter's stratosphere contains hydrocarbons. The heating of the stratosphere comes from the bowels of the planet and the sun.

59. Above the stratosphere lies the thermosphere. Here the temperature reaches 725°C.

60. Storms and auroras happen on Jupiter.

61. A day on Jupiter equals 10 Earth hours.

62. The surface of Jupiter, which is in the shadow, is much hotter than the surface illuminated by the Sun.

63. There are no seasons on Jupiter.

64. All satellites of the gas giant rotate in opposite side from the trajectory of the planet.

65. Jupiter makes sounds similar to human speech. Also their name is "electromagnetic voices".

66. The surface area of ​​Jupiter is 6.21796 1010 km².

67. The volume of Jupiter is 1.43128 1015 km³.

68. The mass of the gas giant is 1.8986 1027 kg.

69. The average density of Jupiter is 1.326 g / cm³.

70. Jupiter's axial tilt is 3.13°.

71. The center of mass of Jupiter with the Sun is outside the Sun. This is the only planet with such an indicator of the center of mass.

72. The mass of the gas giant exceeds the total mass of all planets in the solar system by about 2.5 times.

73. The size of Jupiter is the maximum for a planet of such a structure and such a history.

74. Scientists have created a description of three possible types of life that can live on Jupiter.

75. Sinker is the first imaginary kind of life on Jupiter. Small organisms capable of incredibly fast reproduction.

76. Floater is the second imaginary kind of life on Jupiter. Huge organisms capable of reaching the size of an average terrestrial city. It feeds on organic molecules or produces them on its own.

77. Hunters are predators that feed on floaters.

78. Sometimes collisions of cyclonic structures occur on Jupiter.

79. In 1975, a large cyclonic collision occurred, as a result of which the Red Spot faded and did not restore its color for several years.

80. In 2002, the Great Red Spot collided with the White Oval vortex. The clash continued for a month.

81. A new white vortex formed in 2000. In 2005, the color of the vortex turned red, and it was named the "Small Red Spot".

82. In 2006, the Little Red Spot collided tangentially with the Great Red Spot.

83. The length of lightning on Jupiter exceeds thousands of kilometers, and in terms of power they are much superior to those on Earth.

Jupiter is perhaps one of the most interesting and mysterious planets in our solar system. This planet was familiar to people from ancient times, is mentioned in the writings of the sages of those times, and also influenced the formation of mythology and religious beliefs. different cultures- Babylonian, Greek, Mesopotamian and others. website prepared for you some interesting facts about Jupiter, this amazing giant planet.

1. Where is Jupiter located and why is it famous?

Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun, located between Mars and Saturn. In addition, it is the largest planet in our solar system. To be able to visualize its volume - imagine our Earth multiplied by 1300, and increase the diameter by 11 times! It is hard to imagine? Also, Jupiter is 317 times heavier than the Earth, and the gravity on it exceeds the Earth's by 2.5 times. That is, an ordinary person weighing 70 kilograms would weigh at least 170 kg there! The force of attraction of this planet is so great that it could well change the orbit of a comet flying past. So, for example, in 1992 a comet approached Jupiter, being at a distance of about 15 thousand km. The powerful gravitational field of the planet managed to break its core and the comet itself into 17 fragments.

2. How fast does Jupiter rotate?

Another interesting fact about Jupiter is that it is the fastest planet in our solar system. It takes only 10 hours to make a complete rotation around its axis. The reasons for such a rapid rotation are the magnetic field and radiation around the planet. However, to make a complete revolution around the Sun, it will take as much as 12 years.

Speaking of the magnetic field, it is worth adding that Jupiter also has the strongest in our solar system. It is 14 times larger than on Earth. And the radiation emitted by Jupiter is so strong that it can even damage spacecraft flying too close to it.

3. How many moons does Jupiter have?

Jupiter is also famous for its huge number of satellites. Of the currently studied planets, it has the largest number of them - 63. And this is only for today. At the same time, scientists do not cease to speculate that there may be at least 100 of them. The bulk of the satellites have a diameter of 2-4 kilometers, that is, they are relatively small. The 4 most famous satellites of Jupiter are: Io, Ganymede, Europa and Callisto and they were discovered by Galileo Galilei. Ganymede is the largest of all known satellites, its diameter is 5262 km, the duration of rotation around Jupiter is 7 days. And the satellite Io will be replaced by severe volcanoes and mountains located on it.

4. What is Jupiter made of?

Jupiter is a giant made up almost entirely of helium and hydrogen. But, it also has a hard core. The atmosphere of the planet consists mainly of hydrogen and helium: by volume, their amount is respectively 89% and 11%, and by mass - 80% and 20%. Thus, Jupiter resembles the chemical composition of the Sun. Jupiter's atmosphere is slightly Orange color, which give it compounds of phosphorus and sulfur, as well as ammonia and acetylene.

5. What is this red spot on Jupiter?

The first person to notice the Great Red Spot on Jupiter was Giovanni Cassini in 1665. The spot looks like a giant anticyclone hurricane and a hundred years ago it had a length of 40 thousand kilometers. However, in our time, its size has decreased by half. This red spot is actually a huge atmospheric vortex, the largest in the solar system. It rotates counterclockwise and its speed is about 435 km/h.

6. Do storms happen on Jupiter?

Storms on Jupiter frequent occurrence. Jupiter is surrounded by dense clouds of gas, and its atmosphere consists of light and dark zones separated by swift eddy currents. The wind speed in some of them is about 540 km/h. But usually storms do not last more than 3-4 days. Although sometimes it can last for months. Such hurricanes are always accompanied by lightning and are much more terrible than storms that can be encountered on the ground. Especially strong hurricanes occur every 15-17 years and sweep away everything in their path.

7. Does Jupiter have rings?

It has always been believed that only Saturn has rings, which is known for them. However, in 1979, a discovery was made that amazed scientists - Jupiter also has them! Another amazing fact about Jupiter! For a long time, their origin remained a mystery, but the Galileo spacecraft, which was in the orbit of Jupiter from 1995 to 2003, managed to obtain data on this. It turned out that the rings are the result of a collision of meteoroids with small satellites of Jupiter. As a result of the impact, large quantities dirt and dust, thereby forming a semblance of a ring. Four rings of Jupiter are now known. The most important of them - left after the collision of meteorites with 4 satellites (Thebe, Metis, Adrastea and Almatea).

8. Is there life on Jupiter?

At present, scientists practically exclude the possibility of the existence of life on Jupiter due to the low concentration of water in the atmosphere and the absence of a solid surface. Although in the 70s the American astronomer Carl Sagan speculated about the possibility of the existence of life in the upper atmosphere, this fact has not been scientifically proven. However, there is a chance of water-hydrocarbon life on Jupiter, since in the layer of the atmosphere containing clouds of water vapor, the temperature and pressure are very favorable for this.

Now you know the basic facts about this amazing and mysterious planet. We hope that interesting facts about Jupiter will add a little new to your knowledge of the great and infinite Universe.

In Roman mythology, Jupiter was the supreme god, the lord of lightning and thunder. The planet Jupiter is not only the largest in the solar system, but also one of the most mysterious, many of the mysteries of which scientists cannot solve even today. In our review, a dozen of the most interesting facts about the "gas giant", which is the fifth planet from the Sun.

1. Jupiter could be a star

In 1610, Galileo discovered Jupiter and its four main moons, Europa, Io, Callisto and Ganymede, which are known today as the "Galilean moons". This was the first time in history that humans have observed any other celestial body in the solar system besides the Moon. Also, Galileo's discovery provided excellent support for the Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus and his theory that the Earth is not the center of the universe.

The mass of the largest planet in the solar system is twice more mass the rest of the rest of the bodies in the solar system combined (not counting the sun). Jupiter's atmosphere is very similar to that of a star and consists mainly of hydrogen and helium. Scientists believe that if Jupiter were about 80 times larger, it would turn into a star. Now it is essentially a miniature solar system with its 4 huge satellites and 63 smaller ones. Jupiter is so massive that it is 1300 times more earth.

2. Great Red Spot

The magnificent stripes on Jupiter (which everyone has probably seen) are caused by constant strong winds that blow at speeds up to 650 kilometers per hour. Zones of white clouds in the upper atmosphere consist of frozen and crystallized ammonia. Dark clouds, which contain other chemicals, are found in the middle layers of the atmosphere, while blue clouds are observed in the deepest visible layers of the atmosphere.

Most prominent on Jupiter is the giant super storm called the Great Red Spot, which has been raging for 300 years. The counter-clockwise rotating Great Red Spot is more than three times the diameter of the Earth. The wind in its center develops speeds up to 450 kilometers per hour. The big red spot is constantly changing in size, and sometimes it even seems that it disappears, but then returns again after that.

3 Jupiter's Incredible Magnetic Field

Due to the magnetic field, which is almost 20 thousand times stronger than that of the Earth, Jupiter can be considered the real "magnetic king" of our planet. planetary system. Jupiter traps and attracts electrically charged particles that continuously bombard the system, with radiation levels 1,000 times greater than fatal levels for humans. This radiation is so intense that it can damage even NASA's most heavily shielded spacecraft, such as the Galileo probe.

Jupiter has a magnetosphere that extends a staggering 1 to 3 million kilometers in the direction of the Sun, and also trails like a tail behind the gas giant orbiting the Sun for... 1 billion kilometers.

4. Crazy top

Jupiter, despite its gigantic size, completes a complete rotation around its axis in less than 10 hours (compared to 24 hours in the case of the Earth). Being a gaseous planet, Jupiter does not rotate like a solid planet like the Earth. Instead, it rotates slightly faster at the equator than at the polar regions (with average speed 50,000 kilometers per hour or 27 times faster than Earth). Therefore, a day on Jupiter lasts 9 hours and 56 minutes at both poles and 9 hours and 50 minutes at the equator of the giant planet. This extremely fast rotation causes Jupiter to be more bulging at the equator and flattened at the poles.

5. Jupiter is the largest radio in the solar system

Another area where Jupiter excels is in the "explosions" of powerful natural radio waves that this planet produces, creating eerie noises when radio transmissions are received by shortwave radio stations on Earth. These bursts of radio waves are naturally generated by the unstable plasma in the gas giant's magnetosphere. When first discovered by Earth scientists, these radio waves caused quite a stir as they were thought to be alien communications.

Most astrophysicists assume that the ionized gases of Jupiter's upper atmosphere and its magnetic poles sometimes act like a very strong radio laser, producing radiation so intense that the gas giant quite often outshines even the sun as a source of radio waves. Scientists believe that the strength of this phenomenon is somehow related to volcanic satellite And about.

6. Rings of Jupiter

NASA scientists were surprised when the Voyager 1 spacecraft discovered three rings around Jupiter's equator in 1979. These rings are much fainter than the rings of Saturn and were simply not visible from Earth. The main ring is about 30 kilometers thick and 6,000 kilometers wide, while the flat inner ring cloud, called the Halo Ring, is about 20,000 kilometers thick. Both the Main Ring and the Halo are composed of small dark particles. The third ring, also known as the "Spider" ring, is actually three rings made up of microscopic fragments of Jupiter's three moons - Adrastea, Thebes, and Amalthea.

7. Defender of the Planets

Since Jupiter is the largest celestial body in the solar system (other than the Sun itself), its gravitational forces may have helped shape literally the rest of the solar system. Jupiter may have "pushed" Uranus and Neptune into their current orbits, according to a study published in the journal Nature. And according to an article published in the journal Science, Jupiter, along with Saturn, may also have "postponed" great amount garbage on inner planets ah during early history solar system.

Also, scientists are now almost sure that the gas giant is holding back some asteroids, "not letting" them to Earth. Current data show that Jupiter's gravitational field is exerting strong influence to many asteroids.

8. Giant Jupiter and small Earth have the same core size

Scientists suggest that the inner core of Jupiter is 10 times smaller than the entire planet Earth, and it most likely consists of liquid metallic hydrogen. Earth's diameter is just under 13,000 kilometers, so Jupiter's core should be just under 1,300 kilometers across. This makes it comparable in size to the core of the Earth, which is believed to be about 1,200 kilometers in diameter.

9 Jupiter's Atmosphere: A Chemist's Dream, Everyone's Nightmare

The composition of Jupiter's atmosphere is mostly a mixture of 89.2 percent molecular hydrogen and 10.2 percent helium. The rest of the atmosphere consists of trace amounts of ammonia, hydrogen deuteride, methane, ethane, water, ammonia ice, frozen water and ammonia hydro-sulfide aerosols. Due to a magnetic field 20,000 times stronger than Earth's, the huge gas giant has a dense inner core of (currently) unknown composition that is completely surrounded by a thick layer of enriched helium and liquid metallic hydrogen.

10. Jupiter's satellite Callisto - the celestial body with the largest number of craters

Callisto is the most distant of the four "Galilean moons" and orbits the gas giant in about a week. Since its orbit lies outside Jupiter's radiation belt, Callisto is less tidal than any other Galilean moon.

The diameter of Callisto is 5000 kilometers, i.e., this satellite is approximately equal in size to the planet Mercury. After Ganymede and Titan, Callisto is the third largest moon in the solar system (Io is the fourth and the Moon is the fifth). The average surface temperature of Callisto is -139 degrees Celsius. And Callisto is unusual in that its surface is literally dotted with craters.

In one of our previous reviews, we talked about.

Jupiter is the most major 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 sometimes met in mythology.

Weight and size.
If you compare the sizes of Jupiter and the Earth, you can understand how much they differ. Jupiter exceeds the radius of our planet by more than 11 times.
At the same time, 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 (it is almost 5 times inferior to the earth).

Structure and composition.
The core of the planet, which is very interesting, is stone. Its diameter is about 20 thousand kilometers.
Then follows 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 a substance 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 a liquid.
Well, the last, outer layer - consists, for the most part, of hydrogen. There is also some helium and a little less other elements. This layer is gaseous.

Orbit and rotation.
The speed of Jupiter's orbit is not very high. Full turn around the central star the planet makes 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 of the system. Turnover takes a little less than 10 hours.

Information about the planet Jupiter

Atmosphere.
Jupiter's atmosphere is about 89% hydrogen and 8-10% helium. The remaining crumbs fall on methane, ammonium, water and more.
When observed from afar, the bands of Jupiter are clearly visible - layers of the atmosphere that are different in composition, temperature and pressure. They even have different colors - some are lighter, others are darker. Sometimes they move around the planet in various directions and almost always - at different speeds, which is very beautiful.

In the atmosphere of Jupiter, pronounced phenomena occur: lightning, storms, and others. They are much larger than on our planet.

Temperature.
Despite the distance from the Sun, the temperatures on the planet are very high.
In the atmosphere - from about -110 ° C to +1000 ° C. Well, as the distance to the center of the planet decreases, the temperature also increases.
But it doesn't happen evenly. Especially for its atmosphere - the change in temperature in its different layers occurs in a rather unexpected way. So far, it has not been possible to explain all such changes.

- Due to the rapid rotation around its axis, Jupiter is slightly elongated in height. So, 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, while its diameter would remain almost unchanged. The one she has now.
Such contraction would lead to the emergence of a new Star.

- In the atmosphere of Jupiter there is a giant incessant hurricane - the so-called Jupiter's red spot(because of its color when observed). The size of this spot exceeds several diameters of the Earth! 15 to 30 thousand kilometers - approximately these are its dimensions (and it has also decreased by 2 times over the past 100 years).

- The planet has 3 very thin and inconspicuous rings.

It's raining diamonds on Jupiter.

- Jupiter has the largest number of satellites among all the planets of the solar system - 67.
On one of these satellites, Europa, is global ocean reaching a depth of 90 kilometers. The volume of water in this ocean more volume oceans of the Earth (although the size of the satellite is noticeably inferior to 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. The equatorial diameter of Jupiter 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, at the end of the 16th century, the first imperfect telescopes began to spread in Europe, the Italian scientist Galileo Galilei decided to make such an instrument for himself. He also guessed to use it for the benefit of astronomy. In 1610, Galileo saw through a telescope tiny "stars" revolving around Jupiter. These four satellites discovered by Galileo(Galilean satellites) were named Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto.

The ancient Romans identified many of their gods with the Greeks. 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 the environment of Zeus. Io is one of his many lovers. Europa is a beautiful Phoenician, whom Zeus kidnapped, transforming into a mighty bull. Ganymede is a handsome young cup-bearer who serves Zeus. Nymph Callisto, out of jealousy, the wife of Zeus, Hera, turned 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 satellites of Jupiter. In 1892, the fifth satellite of Jupiter, Amalthea, was discovered. Amalthea is a divine goat who nursed 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 has become a fabulous cornucopia. After Amalthea, the discoveries of the moons of Jupiter fell like a cornucopia. There are currently 63 known moons of Jupiter.

Jupiter and its satellites are being studied by scientists not only from Earth using modern scientific methods, but were also examined from a closer distance using space automatons. American interplanetary automatic station"Pioneer-10" for the first time approached 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 automatic interplanetary station "Cassini" 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 study Jupiter and its satellites in detail. 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 moons 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 satellites - Europa - is approximately 0.9 of 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 by 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 the outer satellites of Jupiter are small cosmic bodies. External satellites in their movement do not adhere to the plane of the Jupiterian equator. Most of the outer satellites revolve around Jupiter in the direction opposite direction rotation of the planet. Most likely, they are all "strangers" in the world of Jupiter. Perhaps they are fragments of large cosmic bodies that collided in the vicinity of Jupiter, or one progenitor that fell apart in a strong gravitational field.

At present, scientists have collected a large amount of information about the planet Jupiter and its satellites, spacecraft have transmitted to the earth a huge number of photographs taken from relatively close distances. But the real sensation, which broke the previously existing ideas of scientists about the satellites of the planets, was the fact that volcanic eruptions occur on Jupiter's satellite Io. Small cosmic bodies during their existence cool down in outer space, in their bowels should not remain the enormous temperature necessary to maintain volcanic activity.

Io is not just a body that still retains some traces of subsurface 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 space body, which should have turned into a dead lump long ago. Scientists believe that the body of the planet is constantly warmed up due to friction in the rocks that form the satellite, under the influence of the huge gravitational force of Jupiter and the forces of attraction from 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 just like a bent wire heats up.

Get the kids interested known facts and the yet unrevealed mysteries of Jupiter and members of his numerous family. The Internet provides an opportunity to satisfy interest in this topic.

4.14. Jupiter

4.14.1. physical characteristics

Jupiter (gas giant) is the fifth planet in the solar system.
Equatorial radius: 71492 ± 4 km, polar radius: 66854 ± 10 km.
Mass: 1.8986 × 1027 kg or 317.8 Earth masses.
Average density: 1.326 g/cm³.
The spherical albedo of Jupiter is 0.54.

The flow of internal heat per unit area of ​​the "surface" of Jupiter is approximately equal to the flow received from the Sun. In this respect, Jupiter is closer to the stars than to the planets. terrestrial group. However, the source internal energy Jupiter is obviously not nuclear reactions. A reserve of energy accumulated during the gravitational contraction of the planet is radiated.

4.14.2. Orbital elements and motion features

The average distance of Jupiter from the Sun is 778.55 million km (5.204 AU). The eccentricity of the orbit 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 plane of the ecliptic is 1.305°. Tilt of the axis of rotation: 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 the angular velocity of rotation decreases from the equator to the poles. The rotation period is 9.925 hours. Due to the rapid rotation, the polar compression of Jupiter is very noticeable: the polar radius is 6.5% less than the equatorial one.

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 the depth at which the pressure is 10 bar (i.e., approximately 10 atm).

Jupiter's atmosphere mainly consists of molecular hydrogen H 2 (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 zones, which are the result of the manifestation of convective currents that carry internal heat to the surface.

In the region of light zones, high blood pressure corresponding to the upstream. The clouds forming the zones are located at a higher level, and their light color is apparently explained by increased concentration ammonia NH 3 and ammonium hydrosulfide NH 4 HS.

The dark belt clouds below are believed to contain compounds of phosphorus and sulfur, as well as some of the simplest hydrocarbons. These, in normal conditions colorless, compounds as a result of exposure to UV radiation from the sun acquire a dark color. Dark belt clouds have more high temperature than light zones and represent areas of downdrafts. Zones and belts have different speeds of movement in the direction of rotation of Jupiter.

Jupiter in the infrared

At the boundaries of belts and zones, where strong turbulence is observed, vortex structures arise, most a prime example which is the Great Red Spot (GRS) - a giant cyclone in the atmosphere of Jupiter, which 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 associated with the presence of sulfur and phosphorus in the atmosphere.

Jupiter is the most massive planet

The BKP is about 30,000 km long and 13,000 km wide (substantially 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 BKL was about 2 times larger. The spot moves parallel to the planet's equator.

4.14.4. Internal structure

The internal structure of Jupiter

It is currently assumed that Jupiter has a solid core at its center, followed by a layer of liquid metallic hydrogen with a small amount of helium, and an outer layer consisting mainly of molecular hydrogen. Despite the general, generally formed concept, it contains, however, many more vague and unclear details.

To describe the core, the model of the stone core of the planet is most often used, however, neither the properties of the substance at 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 with a mass of 12 to 45 Earth masses (or 3–15% of the mass of Jupiter) follows from measurements gravitational field Jupiter. In addition, a solid (ice or stone) embryo of proto-Jupiter for the subsequent accretion of light hydrogen and helium is a necessary element in modern models origin 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 drops. This shell extends over about 78% of the planet's radius. To achieve the state of liquid metallic hydrogen, it is necessary (according to estimates) to have a pressure of at least 200 GPa and a temperature of about 10,000 K.

Above the layer of metallic hydrogen lies a shell consisting of gas-liquid (being 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 phase transition regions also have a small thickness. Therefore, it can be assumed that almost all processes are localized, which makes it possible to consider each layer separately.

Jupiter has a powerful magnetic field. The field strength at the level of the visible surface of the clouds is 14 oersteds north pole and 10.7 oersted at the south. The axis of the dipole is inclined to the axis of rotation 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, rotates with high speed, creates magnetic fields.

Jupiter is surrounded by a powerful magnetosphere, which on the day side extends to a distance of 50–100 planetary radii, and on the night side extends beyond the orbit of Saturn. If Jupiter's magnetosphere could be seen from the surface of the Earth, then its angular dimensions would exceed the dimensions of the Moon.

Compared to the Earth's magnetosphere, Jupiter's magnetosphere has not only large sizes and power, but also a slightly different form, and, along with the dipole, has pronounced quadrupole and octupole components. The shape of Jupiter's magnetosphere is due to two additional factors that are absent in the case of the Earth - the rapid rotation of Jupiter and the presence of a close and powerful source of magnetospheric plasma - Jupiter's satellite Io.

Jupiter in the radio

Thanks to volcanic activity, Io, located at a distance of only about 4.9R J from the upper layer of the planet, every second supplies up to 1 ton of neutral gas rich in sulfur, sulfur dioxide, oxygen, and sodium to Jupiter's magnetosphere. 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 formation of plasma, additional source magnetic field - Jupiter's magnetodisk. The plasma is concentrated in the core of the magnetosphere in the low-latitude region, forming a magnetodisk - a thin current sheet, the azimuthal current in which decreases in proportion to the distance from the planet. The total current in the magnetodisk reaches a value of about 100 million amperes.

Electrons moving in the radiation belts of Jupiter are a source of powerful incoherent synchrotron radiation of the magnetosphere in the radio range.

4.14.6. General characteristics of the satellites and rings of Jupiter

Jupiter is currently known to have 63 natural satellites and ring system. All satellites are divided into two categories: regular and irregular.

Eight regular satellites revolve around 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 moons of Jupiter - Metis (60 × 40 × 34 km), Adrastea (20 × 16 × 14 km), Amalthea (250 × 146 × 128 km) and Theba (116 × 98 × 84 km) - have irregular shape and play the role of the so-called. shepherd moons that keep Jupiter's rings from falling apart.

Rings of Jupiter. Jupiter has faint rings that are at an altitude of 55,000 km from the atmosphere. There are two main rings and one very thin inner one, with a characteristic orange coloration. The main part of the rings has a radius of 123–129 thousand km. The thickness of the rings is about 30 km. To the earthly observer, the rings almost always face an edge, which is why they long time remained unnoticed. The rings themselves consist mainly of dust and small stone particles that do not reflect well Sun rays and therefore they are difficult to distinguish.

Galilean satellites. The four Galilean moons of Jupiter (Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto) are one of largest moons solar system. The total mass of the Galilean satellites is 99.999% of all objects orbiting Jupiter (for more details about the Galilean satellites, see further in section 4.14.7).

irregular satellites. It is customary to call irregular such satellites whose orbits have large eccentricities; or satellites that orbit in the opposite direction; or satellites whose orbits are characterized by large inclinations to the equatorial plane. Irregular satellites are, apparently, asteroids captured from among the "Trojans" or "Greeks".

Irregular satellites that revolve around Jupiter in the direction of its rotation:
Themisto (does not form a family);
the Himalia group (Leda, Himalia, Lysitia, Elara, S/2000 J 11);
Carpo (does not form a family).

Irregular satellites that revolve around Jupiter in the opposite direction:
S/2003 J 12 (does not form a family);
Carme group (13 satellites);
the Ananke group (16 satellites);
the Pasiphe group (17 satellites);
S/2003 J 2 (does not form a family).

4.14.7. Galilean satellites: Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto

The Galilean satellites 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 Jupiter with the same side (i.e., they are in spin-orbit resonance 1:1) 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 related as 1:2:4. The stability of the orbital resonances of the Galilean satellites has been observed since the moment of discovery, i.e., for 400 earth years and more than 20 thousand "satellite" (Ganymede) years (the period of revolution of Ganymede is 7.155 Earth days).

And about(average diameter - 3640 km, mass - 8.93 × 10 22 kg or 0.015 Earth masses, average density- 3.528 g / cm 3) is closer than other Galilean satellites to Jupiter (on average at a distance of 4.9R J from its surface), which, apparently, is the reason for its volcanic activity - the highest in the solar system. At the same time, more than 10 volcanoes can erupt on the surface of Io. As a result, Io's topography changes completely within a few hundred years. Largest eruptions Ionian volcanoes eject matter at a speed of 1 km/s to a height of up to 300 km. Like terrestrial volcanoes, volcanoes on Io emit sulfur and sulfur dioxide. Impact craters on Io are practically absent, 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 other Galilean moons, Io has no water or ice.

Europe(diameter - 3122 km, mass - 4.80 × 10 22 kg or 0.008 Earth masses, average density - 3.01 g / cm 3) is located on average at a distance of 8.4R J from the surface of Jupiter. Europa is completely covered by a layer of water, supposedly 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, rocks lie, and in the center there is presumably a small metal core. The depth of the ocean is up to 90 km, and its volume exceeds the volume of the world ocean of the Earth. The heat needed to keep it in a liquid state is presumably generated by tidal interactions (in particular, tides raise the surface of the satellite to a height of up to 30 meters). Europa's surface is very flat, with only a few hill-like formations several hundred meters high. The high albedo (0.67) of the satellite indicates that the surface ice is fairly clean. The number of craters is small, there are only three craters larger than 5 km in diameter.

Jupiter's strong magnetic field causes electric currents in the salty ocean of Europa, which form its unusual magnetic field.

The magnetic poles are located near the equator of the satellite and are constantly shifting. Changes in the strength and orientation of the field correlate with the passage of Europa through Jupiter's magnetic field. It is assumed that life can exist in the ocean of Europa.

There are basically two types of regions on the surface of Ganymede: very old, heavily cratered dark regions and more "young" (but still ancient) light regions marked by extended rows of ridges and depressions. The origin of the bright regions is obviously associated with tectonic processes. Numerous impact craters are found on both types of Ganymede's surface, which indicates their antiquity - up to 3–3.5 billion years (like the lunar surface).

Callisto(diameter - 4821 km, mass - 1.08 × 10 23 kg or 0.018 Earth masses, average density - 1.83 g / cm 3) is located on average 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 lowest density of all the Galilean satellites (there is a tendency: the farther the satellite from Jupiter, the lower its density) and probably consists of 60% of ice and water and 40% of rocks and iron. It is assumed that Callisto is covered with a 200 km thick ice crust, under which there is a layer of water about 10 km thick. The deeper layers seem to consist of compressed rocks and ice, with a gradual increase in rocks and iron towards the center.

Additional literature:

T. Owen, S. Atreya, H. Nieman. "Sudden guess": the first results of the sounding of the atmosphere of Titan by the spacecraft "Huygens"

Basic data

An object	radius orbits, million km Planet Jupiter short description	orbital circulation period	radius, thousand km	weight, kg	circulation period around its axis, days	free fall acceleration, g	surface temperature, K
The 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 (sample)	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

arr - rotates in the direction, reverse movement in orbit

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 belts of clouds in the atmosphere and the Great Red Spot make Jupiter a very picturesque planet.

Jupiter is not a solid planet. Unlike four solid planets, closer than others located to the Sun, Jupiter is a huge ball of gas. There are three more gas giant, which are even more distant from the Sun: Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. In their chemical composition, these gaseous planets are very similar to the Sun and very different from the solid inner planets of the solar system. Jupiter's atmosphere, for example, is 85 percent hydrogen and about 14 percent helium. Although we cannot see any hard, rocky surface through Jupiter's clouds, deep inside the planet, hydrogen is under such pressure that it takes on some of the characteristics of a metal.

Jupiter rotates on its axis extremely fast - it makes one revolution in 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 the clouds are stretched out in long colorful ribbons. Different parts of the atmosphere rotate with several various speeds, and it is this difference that gives rise to cloud bands. Clouds over Jupiter are heterogeneous, stormy, therefore appearance cloud bands can change in just a few days. In the clouds of Jupiter there is, in addition, 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 huge size a storm in Jupiter's atmosphere that has been observed for 300 years. There are at least 16 moons orbiting Jupiter. One of
them, is the largest satellite and our solar system; it is larger than the planet Mercury.

Travel to Jupiter

Five spaceships have already been sent to Jupiter. The fifth of them, Galileo, was sent on a six-year journey in October 1989. The spacecraft Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 made the first measurements. They were followed by the two Voyager spacecraft, which took photographs in 1979 close-up which are simply breathtaking. After 1991, photographing Jupiter was done by the Hubble Space Telescope, and these pictures are not inferior in quality to those taken by the Voyagers. In addition, the Hubble Space Telescope will take photographs for several years, while the Voyagers had only a short period of time while they flew past Jupiter.

clouds of poisonous gas

The dark, reddish bands on Jupiter are called belts, while the lighter bands are called zones. Photographs taken by spacecraft and the Hubble Space Telescope tingle that in just a few weeks, noticeable changes occur in the belts and buttocks. This is due to the fact that visible to us character traits Jupiter is actually colored and white clouds in the upper atmosphere. Near the Great Red Spot, the clouds form beautiful patterns with swirls and waves. Whirlwind clouds are blown away along the stripes the strongest winds whose speed exceeds 500 km/h.

Much of Jupiter's atmosphere would be fatal 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 stinking. This gas composition looks like sunshine.

The white clouds contain crystals of frozen ammonia and water ice. Brown, red and blue clouds may owe their color chemicals, similar to our dyes, or sulfur. Thunderbolts can be seen through the outer layers of the atmosphere.

The active cloud layer is quite thin, less than one hundredth of the planet's radius. Below the clouds, the temperature gradually rises. And although it is -160°C on the surface of the cloud layer, having descended 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, nevertheless, the largest part of the deep region consists of hydrogen. Inside the planet, under enormous pressure, hydrogen from a gas turns into a liquid. At deeper and deeper levels, the pressure keeps trying because of the colossal weight of the upper layers of the atmosphere.

At a depth of about 100 km there is a boundless ocean liquid hydrogen. Below 17,000 km, hydrogen is compressed so strongly that its atoms are destroyed. And then it starts behaving like metal; in this state, it easily conducts electricity. Electricity flowing and metallic hydrogen creates a strong magnetic field around Jupiter.

Metallic hydrogen and the depths of Jupiter is an example unusual look matter, which astronomers can study, which is almost impossible to reproduce in the laboratory.

Almost a star

Jupiter releases more energy than it receives from the Sun. Spacecraft measurements have shown that Jupiter radiates about 60 percent more thermal energy than it receives from solar radiation.

It is believed that additional heat comes from three sources: from the heat reserves left over from the time of the formation of Jupiter; the sludge of energy released and the process of slow contraction, contraction of the planet; and, finally, from the energy of radioactive decay.

Planet Jupiter

This heat, however, does not result from the cessation of hydrogen into helium, as happens in stars. In fact, even the smallest of the stars that use the energy of such a termination is about 80 times more massive than Jupiter. This means that other "solar systems" may have planets and more Jupiter, although smaller than a star.

Jupiter radio station

Jupiter is a natural radio station. No meaning can be extracted from Jupiter's radio signals, since they are entirely made up of noise. These radio signals are created by electrons zipping through Jupiter's very strong magnetic field. powerful storms and lightning discharges are superimposed on a chaotic radio rumble. Jupiter has a strong magnetic field that extends 50 planet diameters in all directions. No other planet in the solar system has such a strong magnetism and does not create such a powerful radio emission.

Moons of Jupiter

The family of 16 moons of Jupiter is, as it were, solar system in miniature, where Jupiter plays the role of the Sun, and its magnifiers 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 overlying a rocky core. There are numerous traces of meteorite bombardments, as well as evidence of collision with 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 a 100 km thick ice shell on it. This ice sheet reflects light as strongly as the clouds of Venus.

Of all the loops, the most picturesque is Io, which rotates closest to Jupiter. Cyst Io is quite unusual - it is a mixture of black, red and yellow. Such an amazing color is due to the fact that a large amount of sulfur was erupted from the depths of Io. The Voyager cameras showed several active volcanoes on Io; they throw sulfur fountains up to 200 km above the surface. Sulfuric lava flies out at a speed of 1000 m and a second. Some of this lava material escapes from Io's gravity zero and forms a ring encircling Jupiter.

The surface of Io is ground. We can promise this because there are almost notes on it. meteorite craters. Io's orbit is less than 400,000 km from Jupiter. Therefore, Io is subjected to huge tidal forces. The constant alternation of tensile and compressive tides inside Io generates intense internal friction. This keeps the interior hot and molten despite Io's vast distance from the Sun.

In addition to the four large moons, Jupiter also has small “loops”. Four of them fly lower on Jupiter's surface than Io, and scientists believe they are simply large fragments of other moons that have ceased to exist.