Jupiter is the biggest planet in our solar system, It has 63 moons in total that scientist have discovered four of which are as big as a planet. The four largest moons are called the Galilean satellites because Galileo is believed to have discovered the planet. Scientists think that the 59 other moons orbiting around Jupiter may actually be asteroids captured by the planets gravitational force.
Jupiter’s climate is a very cold one, with temperatures on average of between -163° C to -121° C. It is famous for the great red spot, which is a large storm that was been around for over 300 years. Powerful winds, lightening and hurricanes are just some of the types of storms that the red spot experiences on a daily basis. Most of the clouds that occasionally cover Jupiter are ammonia based, the planet itself is mainly made up of Hydrogen, Helium and Nitrogen among other gasses.
Jupiter like many of the gas giants has rings. Its main ring is formed by dust thrown up by the interplanetary meteors that hit the planets Galilean sattelites. The ring itself is about 250,000 km from the planet itself. There is also the inner cloud like ring made up of small dark particles called a Halo. Finally there is a third ring surrounding Jupiter. It is really two ultra thin ringa made up of junk from two of the planets four large moons, it is called the Gossamer ring.
Like Earth, Jupiter has a magnetic field, only it is approximately 20,000 times stronger. Jupiter does have a radiation belt which is composed of many ions and electrons. If you were to fly to Jupiter on a space shuttle, it would take .94 lightyears to get there, the planet is approximately 778,330,000 km away from the sun.
Picture from -
www.astronomija.co.yu
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