Structure

Jupiter's environment is probably not conducive to life as we know it. The temperatures, pressures and materials that characterize this planet are most likely too extreme and volatile for organisms to adapt to.

While planet Jupiter is an unlikely place for living things to take hold, the sa...

Jupiter is our fith planet from our Sun and is by far, the largest planet in the solar system - more than twice as massive as all the other planets combined. Jupiter's stripes and swirls are actually cold, windy clouds of ammonia and water, floating in an atmosphere of hydrogen and helium. Jupite...

Discoverd in 1979 by NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft, Jupiter's rings were a surprise, as they are composed of small, dark particles and are difficult to see except when backlit by the Sun. Data from the Galileo spacecraft indicate that Jupiter's ring system may be formed by dust kicked up as interpl...

With four large moons and many smallersm moons, Jupiter forms a kind of miniature solar system. Jupiter has 53 confirmed moons and 26 provisional moons awaiting confirmation of discovery. Moons are named after they are confirmed.

Jupiter's four largest moons—Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callist...

Nine spacecrafts have studied jupiter up close. NASA'S Juno spacecraft is currently studying the gas giant planet from orbit 

The spacecraft, which arrived at Jupiter in July 2016, is the first to study the planet's mysterious, cloud-shrouded interior. Scientists also use the Earth-orbiting...

With a radius of 43,440.7 miles (69,911 kilometers), Jupiter is 11 times wider than Earth. If Earth were the size of a nickel, Jupiter would be about as big as a basketball.

From an average distance of 484 million miles (778 million kilometers), Jupiter is 5.2 astronomical units away from t...

Jupiter's appearance is tapestry of colorful cloud bands and spots. The gas planet likely has three distinct cloud layers in its "skies" that, taken together, span about 44 miles (71 kilometers). The top cloud is probably made of ammonia ice, while the middle layer is likely made of ammonium hydr...

The jovian magnetoshpere is the region of space influenced by Jupiter's powerful magnetic field. It balloons 600,000 to 2 million miles (1 to 3 million kilometers) toward the Sun (seven to 21 times the diameter or Jupiter itself) and tapers into a tadpole-shaped tail extending more than 600 milli...

Jupiter took shape when the rest of the solar system formed about 4,5 billion years ago, when gravity pulled swirling gas and dust in to become this gas giant. 

Jupiter took most of the mass left over after the formation of the Sun, ending up with more than twice the combined material of th...

• Day: 9,93 hours
• Year: 11.86 Earth years
• Radius: 88,846 miles / 142,984 kilometers
• Planet type: Gas giant
• Temperature: -160 degrees Fahrenheit (-110 degrees Celsius)

Jupiter has the shortest day in the solar system. One day on Jupiter takes only about 10 hours (the time it takes for Jupiter to rotate or spin around once), and Jupiter makes a complete orbit around the Sun (a year in Jovian time) in about 12 Earth years (4,333 Earth days).

Its equator is ...