Jupiter

Introduction

When ancient astronomers named the planet Jupiter for the Roman ruler of the gods and heavens (also known as Jove), they had no idea of the planet's true dimensions, but the name is appropriate, for Jupiter is larger than all the other planets combined. It takes nearly 12 Earth years to orbit the Sun, and it rotates once about every 10 hours, more than twice as fast as Earth; its colourful cloud bands can be seen with even a small telescope. It has a narrow system of rings and more than 60 known moons, one larger than the planet Mercury and three larger than Earth's Moon. Some astronomers speculate that Jupiter's moon Europa may be hiding an ocean of warm water—and possibly even some kind of life—beneath an icy crust.

Jupiter has an internal heat source; it emits more energy than it receives from the Sun. The pressure in its deep interior is so high that the hydrogen there exists in a fluid metallic state. This giant has the strongest magnetic field of any planet, with a magnetosphere so large that, if it could be seen from Earth, its apparent diameter would exceed that of the Moon. Jupiter's system is also the source of intense bursts of radio noise, at some frequencies occasionally radiating more energy than the Sun. Despite all its superlatives, however, Jupiter is made almost entirely of only two elements, hydrogen and helium, and its mean density is not much more than the density of water.

Knowledge about the Jovian system grew dramatically after the mid-1970s as a result of explorations by three spacecraft missions— Pioneers 10 and 11 in 1973–74, Voyagers 1 and 2 in 1979, and the Galileo orbiter and probe, which arrived at Jupiter in December 1995. The Pioneer spacecraft served as scouts for the Voyagers, showing that the radiation environment of Jupiter was tolerable and mapping out the main characteristics of the planet and its environment. The greater number and increased sophistication of the Voyager instruments provided so much new information that it was still being analyzed when the Galileo mission began. The previous missions had all been flybys, but Galileo released a probe into Jupiter's atmosphere and then went into orbit about the planet for intensive investigations of the entire system over several years. Yet another view of the Jovian system was provided in 2000 by the flyby of the Cassini spacecraft on its way to Saturn. Observations of the impacts of the fragmented nucleus of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 with Jupiter's atmosphere in 1994 also yielded information about its composition and structure.Yet another look at the Jovian system was provided in late 2000 and early 2001 by the flyby of the Cassini spacecraft on its way to Saturn and in 2007 by the flyby of the New Horizons spacecraft on its way to Pluto. Observations of the impacts of the fragmented nucleus of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 with Jupiter's atmosphere in 1994 also yielded information about its composition and structure.

Basic astronomical data

Jupiter has an equatorial diameter of about 143,000 km (88,900 miles) and orbits the Sun at a mean distance of 778 million km (483 million miles). The table shows additional physical and orbital data for Jupiter. Of special interest are the planet's low mean density of 1.33 grams per cubic cm—in contrast with Earth's 5.52 grams per cubic cm—coupled with its large dimensions and mass and short rotation period. The low density and large mass indicate that Jupiter's composition and structure are quite unlike those of Earth and the other inner planets, a deduction that is supported by detailed investigations of the giant planet's atmosphere and interior.

Three rotation periods, all within a few minutes of each other, have been established. The two periods called System I (9 hours 50 minutes 30 seconds) and System II (9 hours 55 minutes 41 seconds) are mean values and refer to the speed of rotation at the equator and at higher latitudes, respectively, as exhibited by features observed in the planet's visible cloud layers. Jupiter has no solid surface; the transition from the gaseous atmosphere to the fluid interior occurs gradually at great depths. Thus the variation in rotation period at different latitudes does not imply that the planet itself rotates with either of these mean velocities. In fact, the true rotation period of Jupiter is System III (9 hours 55 minutes 29 seconds). This is the period of rotation of Jupiter's magnetic field, first deduced from Earth-based observations at radio wavelengths (see below Radio emission) and confirmed by direct spacecraft measurements. This period, which has been constant for 30 years of observation, applies to the massive interior of the planet, where the magnetic field is generated.