Jupiter ByDavid

An Introduction to Jupiter It’s largest planet in our solar system It lies in the outer solar system It’s the first planet after the asteroid belt, which separates terrestrial and Jovian planets files/images/unit4/

The Surface It’s a Jovian planet A gas giant It has no solid surface Jupiter is 82% hydrogen and 17% helium

The Surface continued... The interior is most likely made up of a small metallic core surrounded by liquid hydrogen Currents in the liquid hydrogen cause a strong magnetic field, which shields Jupiter from the solar winds The interior is still cooling since its formation and gives off thermal heat The interior is about Kelvins, but the surface is only about 110 K (-160º C) It’s pressure is as great as three million times the sea- level pressure on Earth news/jupiter-clouds-01a.html

Jupiter VS Earth

The Atmosphere Instead of a surface it has a dense atmosphere that consists of a layer of colourful clouds 100km thick Clouds are bands of colour parallel to the equator The bands of cloud rotate at great speeds around the planet They rotate at different speeds than the planet and each other They rotate in different directions Two bands travelling in opposite directions can create whirlwind storms

The Great Red Spot Jupiter's most striking feature is the Great Red Spot. Sky watchers have known about it for more than 300 years. The Great Red Spot is an oval shaped storm that whirls at a speed of 400km per hour This storm is like a hurricane but much bigger; 25,000km across and is as big as almost 3 Earths The colours are caused by chemical reactions in the clouds Colours range from white to dark reddish brown

Jupiter Facts Length of one rotation on it’s axis 9hrs 55min Length of one orbital period (rotation around the sun) yrs Distance from the sun million km. Equatorial diameter 142,980 km.

Jupiter’s Moons Jupiter has 16 moons Galileo discovered 4 moons (Galilean satellites) in These were the first satellites found orbiting another planet These moons were first seen in detail by the Voyager space probe in

The Galilean Satellites Io closest to Jupiter volcanic vents eject molten sulphur low gravity and thin atmosphere cause eruptions hundreds of kilometers above the surface Ganymede larger than mercury largest satellite in the solar system dark in colour, icy and heavily cratered

The Galilean Satellites cont… Europa smooth tan coloured surface no mountains or craters young surface appears to be a layer frozen water with a lot of cracks Europa is slightly smaller than our moon Callisto one of the objects in our solar system that has the greatest amount of craters approximately the same size as our moon. UPJV01P01_18jupmoon.html ter/UPJVolume01/UPJV01P01_18jupmoon.html All of the moons can be seen from Earth by telescope or binoculars They rotate rapidly around Jupiter

A Person’s Weight on Jupiter Multiply your weight (kilos or pounds) by kg on Earth = kg on Jupiter 100 pounds on Earth = 234 pounds europa.html

Life on Jupiter Jupiter DOES NOT support life. No solid surface High pressure –strong gravity Strong winds –360km/hr to 1600 km/h Extreme cold temperature –-168 C to 0 C –where the temperature is 0 C, the pressure is about the same as if you were a few kilometers below the sea on Earth –The air of Jupiter is well below freezing

More Reasons Why… There are three known cloud decks in the atmosphere –They contain ammonia, ammonia combined with sulphur, and water –We couldn’t breathe in this atmosphere There are high levels of radiation –The radiation belts close to Jupiter create one of the harshest radiation environments in the Solar System We would also be exposed to lightening, and ultraviolet light r_022702_3_caption.html

Interesting Facts the Jovian planets are at a much greater distance from each other than the terrestrial planets Jupiter is over 11 times the diameter of Earth Jupiter has a mass 2.5 times greater than all the other planets put together If Jupiter were a container, 1400 Earth's could fit inside Jupiter is sometimes called a "fake star" because its chemical composition is a lot like the Sun's It radiates more energy into space than it gets from the Sun news/jupiter-clouds-01a.html

More Interesting Facts 4 spacecraft have visited Jupiter 2 fly-bys by Pioneer in 1974 and 2 by Voyager in 1979 These probes gathered important information about Jupiter and its clouds They discovered that Jupiter has a thin and delicate ring structure that is not visible from Earth voyager25/images-moons.html

Jupiter’s Rings /09/15/61.asp

More About the Rings www2.jpl.nasa.gov/ galileo/moons/rings.html

Something REALLY Cool!!! I am 11 years old on Earth I would be less than 1 year old, but almost 1 on Jupiter foto.htm

Conclusion Jupiter is a very very cool planet. Although we could never live there, its characteristics are very interesting. These include its rings, it’s phenomenal size, it’s a gas giant and could even be called a fake star because it’s a lot like the sun. With all of its moons, it’s sometimes called its own mini-solar system. I hope you have enjoyed my presentation.

Bibliography “The Solar System Webquest.” 5 June 2005 “CSA – Jupiter.” 4 June 2005 “CSA Astronomy 1 - Module 4: The Planets.” 5 June 2005 “Can there be Life in the Environment of Jupiter?” 5 June 2005