• It takes 12 of Earth’s years for Jupiter to orbit the sun just one time.
• Rotating on its own axis one time takes a little under 10 hours in Earth time; Jupiter possesses one of the shortest days in the planetary system. It is the fastest spinning planet of all eight.
• Jupiter has the strongest gravitational field in the entire solar system. Almost ¾ of the planetary matter found in this solar system are located within Jupiter’s field.
• The planet also has the strongest magnetic field in the solar system. Pulling in charged particles from the solar wind, the magnetic field speeds these particles until they are traveling close to the speed of light. As a result, a belt of radiation that would prove to be quite treacherous to spacecraft exists around the planet.
• The most moons orbiting a single planet are found around Jupiter, with at least 60 moons in its atmosphere. More are being discovered continuously, and are believed to be pulled into the orbit by the strong gravity pull rather than being created while in the system. The moons travel in a backward, or retrograde, movement.
• The largest moon in the entire solar system is Ganymede, which is one of the many moons orbiting Jupiter.
• Like Saturn, Jupiter features rings. Unlike Saturn, Jupiter’s rings are not believed to contain any ice particles despite its frigid conditions; the rings are composed mostly of dust particles. Speculation is that the dust is created when meteoroids collide with the moon, Io. At least four rings have been detected, although the rings are much fainter than Saturn’s rings, invisible to the naked eye.
• One of the windiest planets, Jupiter’s winds measure up to 300 miles per hour. It is surpassed only by Neptune, whose winds can howl at around 1,000 miles per hour.
• Jupiter is a very stormy planet. Storm areas are visible in color; white spots indicate a cool storm while brown spots indicate a warm storm.
• The Great Red Spot is possibly the most famous feature of Jupiter. The spot is actually a fierce storm which has raged on for over 300 years, although it does appear to be diminishing in size. One hundred years ago, the spot measured approximately 40,000km; it now measures only half that size. The Great Red Spot moves only east or west; never north or south. It can rise above the cloud layers at times, or sink beneath. A smaller yet similarly colored storm has recently been identified, and has been named Red Spot Jr. The colorations of these storms differ from others on the planet due to the fact that the storms pull compounds up from the interior of the planet, which turn brownish red when exposed to surface light.
• Auroral lights that are similar to the northern lights experienced on Earth can be seen emitting from Jupiter’s polar regions. Dust particles from the volcanic moon Io rise to the upper atmosphere and encounter hydrogen gas; the combination of the two causes the particle to fluoresce.
• Two equatorial bands encircle Jupiter; the northern equatorial band sits above the equator while the southern equatorial band lies below. Each equatorial band has varying jet streams, which creates incredible turmoil at the equator where most storms can be found.
• Jupiter also features two polar regions, north and south. This is the area from which the auroral emissions are created.
• Lightening is much more powerful on Jupiter than on Earth, although it occurs much less frequently.
Learning facts about Jupiter is a work in progress. All of the information that scientists and astronomers have gathered have come from pictures taken by various flyby missions and from those submitted by the Hubble Space Telescope. A new mission is being planned for a launch in 2011, named the Juno Mission.
While our knowledge of the beginnings of the solar system and its planets such as Jupiter may be based on theory, astronomers are accumulating more and more actual facts about Jupiter each time pictures are obtained. Perhaps there will come a day when the secrets and mysteries of the ancient universe will be unlocked and Jupiter will become more than a bright spot in the sky.