This is the fifth planet from the Sun and the oldest compared to the other planets.
Jupiter is the largest planet in the Solar System.
Quiz
Question 1: Which planet is the largest in the Solar System?
a. Mercury
b. Jupiter
c. Saturn
Question 2: Jupiter is a rocky planet, true or false?
a. True
b. False
Question 3: Jupiter has the largest moon in the Solar System, true or false?
Question 4: What is the Great Red Spot?
a. One of Jupiter’s four moons
b. A volcano on Jupiter
c. A massive swirling storm on Jupiter
Question 5: How long does Jupiter take to complete one rotation on its axis?
a. 10 hours
b. 10 days
c. 10 weeks
Answers
Question 1: b – Jupiter. Jupiter is the largest planet in the Solar System. The Solar System has the Sun as its central star. Other celestial bodies like planets, asteroids, meteoroids, comets, and dust orbit around the Sun.
The eight planets in the Solar System include: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune (in order from the Sun).
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun. According to Universe Today, Jupiter has an equatorial diameter of 142,984 km, more than 11 times that of Earth.
The volume of the largest planet in the Solar System is 1.43128×10^15 km³, enough to contain 1,321 Earths inside with still some space left.
The surface area of Jupiter is 6.21796×10^10 km², which is 122 times the surface area of Earth.
Jupiter weighs 1.8986×10^27 kg, nearly 318 times the weight of Earth.
In fact, Jupiter has a mass 2.5 times that of all the planets in the Solar System combined. The Sun accounts for 99.9% of the total mass of the Solar System.
Question 2: b – False. Jupiter belongs to the group of gas giant planets in the Solar System, alongside Saturn. Uranus and Neptune are referred to as ice giants, while the other four planets are rocky planets.
Jupiter does not have a defined solid surface. Its composition is mainly hydrogen and helium, surrounding a core that contains heavier elements.
The atmosphere of Jupiter extends 5,000 km high. Its upper atmosphere consists of 90% hydrogen, nearly 10% helium (by volume or molecular ratio), along with small percentages of various other compounds such as ammonia, sulfur, methane, and water vapor.
According to Space, moving inward towards Jupiter’s core, pressure and temperature increase. Therefore, the deeper you go, hydrogen changes state from gas to liquid and can even become metallic.
Question 3: a – True. Ganymede is Jupiter’s largest moon and also the largest moon in the Solar System, larger than Mercury (which was once considered a planet of the Solar System). Ganymede’s diameter is larger than that of Mercury, but due to its low density, it weighs only half as much. This moon takes over seven days to complete one orbit around Jupiter and is the only moon in the Solar System discovered to have a magnetosphere – a region of space surrounding a planet that is controlled by the planet’s magnetic field.
Astronomer Galileo Galilei discovered Ganymede in 1610, the same year he discovered the other three large moons of Jupiter. Simon Marius, another astronomer, proposed naming the moon after the character Ganymede from Greek mythology. He was the prince of Troy, “the most beautiful youth in the mortal world”, who was loved by Zeus, who made him a cupbearer and granted him immortality.
Question 4: c – A massive swirling storm on Jupiter. The Great Red Spot has been raging on Jupiter for hundreds of years and continues to shrink and change color to orange, according to observations from the Hubble Space Telescope operated by NASA. Existing since the 1600s, the Great Red Spot began to be observed in the late 1800s. The Great Red Spot rotates counterclockwise (opposite to Jupiter’s rotation) with a cycle of about 6 Earth days. Initially, it was 41,000 km wide, large enough to contain three Earths inside. By 2015, it was only 16,500 km wide. The Great Red Spot has also changed shape from oval to round.
Question 5: a – Jupiter takes 10 hours to complete one rotation on its axis. Jupiter’s rotation speed is the fastest in the Solar System. It completes a rotation in less than 10 hours (9.9 hours). Therefore, a day on Jupiter is shorter than a day on Earth. Jupiter’s axial tilt is relatively small, only 3.13 degrees. This is why this planet does not experience significant seasonal changes like Earth and Mars.
