42 Important Facts About Jupiter

Last updated on July 2nd, 2021

21. Ice vs Gas: Uranus and Neptune are ice giants while Jupiter and Saturn are gas giants.

22. Jupiter can easily put to fire anything that comes in its contact. Thus, the spacecraft sent to study the planet are always at a risk of burning down when they have to come close to the planet for making the required observations.

“The Great Red Spot — first identified in 1665 — is a monster storm on Jupiter which is twice the size of Earth and has been in existence for over 350 years now.”

23. Jupiter is 318 times heavier than earth.

24. Jupiter’s mass is one-thousandth that of Sun’s mass and equal to two and a half times the mass of all other planets combined.

25. Jupiter has the maximum number of moons in the solar system – 67 to be precise. Fifty-three of these are named while the rest fourteen are yet to be named.

26. The composition of Jupiter is similar to that of the Sun (learn interesting facts about the Sun.)

27. Jupiter is at a distance of 5.2 AU from the Sun.

28. Jupiter is a windy planet. It experiences wind speeds of 192 mph to more than 400 mph.

29. Jupiter spins faster than any other planet in the solar system. It takes 10 hours to complete its rotation around the Sun. This means that the length of a day on Jupiter is only 10 hours as compared to the 24 hours on Earth.

30. One year on Jupiter is equal to 12 years on Earth.

“Jupiter’s core is about 24000 degree Celsius. That is hotter than the surface of Sun.”

31. Jupiter is named after Jupiter, the king of the Roman gods in mythology.

32. An astronaut weighing 100 pounds on earth would weigh 240 pounds on Jupiter.

33. Jupiter’s magnetic field is 16 to 54 times as powerful as that of the earth.

33. Jupiter because of its immense size influences the space between 600,000 and 2 million miles towards the Sun.

33. Another interesting fact about Jupiter is that the planet’s equator rotates at a different speed than its polar regions. A day at its equator is around 9 hours 50 minutes long while that at its poles is 9 hours and 56 minutes long.

34. The length of each season on Jupiter is roughly three years.

35. Jupiter has an average temperature of minus 145 degree Celsius. However, it is a notable fact here that the temperature of Jupiter changes not due to the change in its distance from the Sun but due to the change in its height above its surface, meaning that the regions near the core of the planet are hotter than those away from it.

36. Jupiter emits more heat that it receives from the Sun, almost four times of its intake.

“Jupiter has the shortest day in the Solar system.”

37. The temperature on Jupiter ranges between minus 128 degree Celsius and minus 13 degree Celsius.

38. Jupiter has the largest ocean in the Solar System, an ocean made up of liquid hydrogen instead of water.

39. A spacecraft couldn’t potentially land on Jupiter because of lack of a solid surface. The planet is built mostly from gasses and liquids that are swirling around.

40. Europa — one of Jupiter’s moons — is one of the likeliest places to find life elsewhere in our solar system.

41. On 7^th December 1995, the first samples of Jupiter’s atmosphere were collected by NASA’s Galileo orbiter. The probe penetrated 200 km into Jupiter’s atmosphere and lasted for 58 minutes before being destroyed.

42. Jupiter’s magnetic field extends up to 600,000 to 2 million miles towards the Sun. This immense magnetic field creates some spectacular aurorae at its poles.

“One of Jupiter’s moon — Io — is the most volcanically active body in the solar system.”

Quick facts about Jupiter