Jupiter - Next Planet - Back to Planet Walk
Jupiter
This picture of
Jupiter is only nine times larger than the scale of this model. Courtesy
NASA.
Jupiter is the fifth planet from
the Sun, 484 million miles from it. Jupiter is the largest planet in the
Solar System, containing just under three quarters (71%) of all the known
matter in the Solar System that is not in the Sun. Jupiter's mass is 2.09
x 1024 tons or 319 times as massive as the Earth. The diameter
of Jupiter is 88,738 miles, 11 times that of the Earth. The volume of Jupiter
is so huge that it could hold 1,400 Earths.
Jupiter is the first Gas Giant
planet we come to in the solar system. The Gas Giants are huge planets
made of materials that we think of as gasses. The materials that compose
Jupiter are mostly hydrogen (90%), and helium (10%), with tiny amounts
of methane (0.7%), and some ammonia. When we look at a picture of Jupiter,
we are seeing clouds in Jupiter's atmosphere.
