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Jupiter (♃ , बृहस्पति) is the giant of our Solar System. Not only Jupiter is very huge, its gravitational force also helped in sculpting the structure of the Solar system, as we see today. First of the giant planets, Jupiter is a mammoth ball of gas with many striking features.
Here are some interesting facts about Jupiter, the giant of the giants:
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System
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Roman god Jupiter is also called Jove which is the reason behind the name Jovian planets. ‘Jovian planets’ is the other term used for ‘Giant planets’
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Jupiter’s upper atmosphere is about 88–92% Hydrogen and 8–12% Helium by percent volume of gas molecules
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Jupiter’s rotation is the fastest of all the Solar System‘s planets
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But like the other giant planets, Jupiter lacks a well-defined solid surface
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Astronomers have discovered nearly 500 planetary systems with multiple planets. Regularly, these systems include a few planets with masses several times greater than Earth‘s (super-Earths), orbiting closer to their star than Mercury is to the Sun. Jupiter moving out of the inner Solar System would have allowed the formation of inner planets, including Earth
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Jupiter’s mass is 0.001 times the mass of the Sun, so the densities of the two bodies are similar
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The extrasolar planet ‘HD 209458 b’ has a mass of 0.69 M J (/ M Jup), while ‘Kappa Andromedae b’ which is a brown dwarf has a mass of 12.8 M J
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The Great Red Spot is decreasing in length by about 930 km (580 mi) per year
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Jupiter’s distance from the Sun varies by 75 million km between its nearest approach and furthest distance
Appendix: AU
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This field is thought to be generated by eddy currents—swirling movements of conducting materials—within the liquid Metallic Hydrogen core
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Despite this, Jupiter still radiates more heat than it receives from the Sun
Appendix: Red Dwarf
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The interactions of the conflicting circulation of these cloud patterns cause storms and turbulence
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One day after Galileo, Simon Marius independently discovered moons around Jupiter, though he did not publish his discovery in a book until 1614 (Galileo discovered the moons in 1610). It was Marius’s names for the four major moons, however, that stuck—Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto
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A 340-kilogram titanium atmospheric probe was released from the Galileo spacecraft on July 1995, entering Jupiter’s atmosphere on December 7. It collected data for 57.6 minutes before the signal was lost at a pressure of about 23 atmospheres at a temperature of 153 °C. The Galileo orbiter itself experienced a more rapid version of the same fate when it was deliberately steered into the planet on September 21, 2003. They melted thereafter and possibly vaporized
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Source: Wikipedia
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