Jupiter
The biggest planet in the Solar System
Jupiter
- Jupiter is twice as heavy as all the other planets put together!
- Jupiter has no surface for spacecraft to land because it is made mostly of hydrogen and helium gas.
- the massive pull of Jupiter’s gravity squeezes the hydrogen gas so hard to become a liquid.
- towards Jupiter’s core – extremely pressure makes the liquid hydrogen gas behave like a metal.
- spins around in less than 10 hours, which means that the surface is moving at nearly 31,000 mph.
- Jupiter’s magnetic field; 10 times stronger than the Earth’s magnetic field!
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Great Red Spot
- Jupiter has a Great Red Spot (GRS) – huge swril of red clouds; measuring more than 25,000 miles.
- Robert Hooke first noticed the Great Red Spot in 1644. Â (wikipedia; Â Robert Hooke)
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Mission to Jupiter for Exploration  (According to NASA)
- Past
Launched: Â 2nd March 1972 Â -Â Pioneer 10
Launched: Â 5th April 1972 Â – Â Pioneer 11
Launched: Â 20th August 1997 Â – Â Voyager 2
Launched: Â 5th September 1977 Â – Â Voyager 1
Launched: Â 18th October 1989 Â – Â Galileo
Launched: Â 6th October 1990 Â – Â Ulysses
Launched: Â 15th October 1997 Â – Â Cassini
Launched: Â 19th January 2006 – Â New Horizons - Present
Launched:  5th August 2011  –  Juno (Still flight to arrive Jupiter in July 2016.)
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Did you know?
- Jupiter is so big that pressure at its core makes it very hot – the planet gives out heat, but not enough to make it glow, if it were 100 times bigger, nuclear reactions would happen at Jupiter’s core to turn it into a star.
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