Jupiter: Difference between revisions

The biggest gas giant, massing over 300 times more than Earth. It's mostly hydrogen and helium, although various other compounds provide its colorful bands and storms, and scientists believe a rocky core sits at its center. Its most prominent surface feature is called [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|the Great Red Spot]]. It's a cyclone, a whirling storm 3 times as big across as the Earth. Much of the energy for Jupiter's weather appears to come from the very slow contraction of the planet.

 

Its gravity probably stunted Mars and kept another planet from forming where the main asteroid belt is now, but it's also well placed to deflect those nasty comets and asteroids away from us in the inner solar system. It definitely took one for the team when Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 came calling in 1994. However, its influence on comets is a two-edged sword -- some comets which otherwise would have made a single pass through the inner solar system and headed back out into deep space never to be seen again, were instead deflected by Jupiter into short-period Solar orbits that pass through the inner solar system over and over. (Comet Halley probably had this happen to it ''twice.'')

 

 

The planet harbors many, many moons, some of which are listed in their own article: [[The Moons of Jupiter]].

 

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[[Category:Jupiter]]