Jupiter

[Joseph Buell]

Jupiter has 79 (discovered) moons. Some of them haven't even been officially named yet.

[Joseph Buell]

Jupiter has 79 (discovered) moons. Some of them haven't even been officially named.

[Joseph Buell]

Eleven Earths could fit across Jupiter’s equator. If Earth were the size of a grape, Jupiter would be the size of a basketball.

Source: NASA

[Joseph Buell]

Jupiter orbits about 484 million miles (778 million kilometers) or 5.2 Astronomical Units (AU) from our Sun (Earth is one AU from the Sun).

Source: NASA

[Joseph Buell]

Jupiter rotates once about every 10 hours (a Jovian day), but takes about 12 Earth years to complete one orbit of the Sun (a Jovian year).

Source: NASA

[Joseph Buell]

Jupiter is a gas giant and so lacks an Earth-like surface. If it has a solid inner core at all, it’s likely only about the size of Earth.

Source: NASA

[Joseph Buell]

Jupiter's atmosphere is made up mostly of hydrogen (H2) and helium (He).

Source: NASA

[Joseph Buell]

Jupiter has more than 75 moons.

Source: NASA

[Joseph Buell]

In 1979 the Voyager mission discovered Jupiter’s faint ring system. All four giant planets in our solar system have ring systems.

Source: NASA

[Joseph Buell]

Nine spacecraft have visited Jupiter. Seven flew by and two have orbited the gas giant. Juno, the most recent, arrived at Jupiter in 2016.

Source: NASA

[Joseph Buell]

Jupiter cannot support life as we know it. But some of Jupiter's moons have oceans beneath their crusts that might support life.

Source: NASA

[Joseph Buell]

Jupiter's Great Red Spot is a gigantic storm that’s about twice the size of Earth and has raged for over a century.

Source: NASA

[Forrest White]

In the process of tidal heating, the gravitational pull of Jupiter's satellites and the planet itself stretches and squeezes the satellites enough to warm them. As a result, some of the icy moons are warm enough to house oceans of liquid water, and in the case of the rocky moon Io, tidal heating turns the rock into magma.