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Jupiter - The 5th Planet

Planet Jupiter | Solar System | The Utah Skies Report

The planet Jupiter as imaged by Anthony Arrigo

Jupiter is currently rising late in the afternoon, placing it favorably for those wanting views of the Sun's largest planet before heading off to bed.

This image is an example of what Jupiter has to offer viewers: interesting detail in the equatorial bands and, if conditions are right, swirls and festoons. Much beautiful structure can be seen through a typical telescope, but results vary depending on telescope aperture and sky conditions. Too, the Great Red Spot has some company: another storm has grow in proportion near the GRS, and has come to be known as Spot Jr!

If you have binoculars, point these towards Jupiter. While you won't be able to see any details on the planets surface, binoculars will clearly show you several of Jupiter's brightest moons, and regular observations will show them jockey for position as they orbit the giant planet. The movement is quite apparent, sometimes even in the span of a few hours.

This sweet shot of Jupiter nicely shows its great red spot and some of the incredible details just waiting your observation. Additionally, you can see one of Jupiter's moons eclipsing the giant planet. The round "ink spot" on the planet's surface is the shadow cast by its moon. Watching Jupiter's moons as they orbit and occasionally transit the giant planet is a very interesting part of observing Jupiter.

Facts & Figures

The Planet Jupiter as imaged by The Hubble Space Telescope

Jupiter reigns supreme among our nine planets, containing two-thirds of the planetary mass of the solar system. In composition it resembles a small star. Its interior pressure may reach 100 million times the pressure on Earth's surface. Jupiter's magnetic field is immense, even in proportion to the size of the planet, stretching millions of miles into the solar system. Electrical activity in Jupiter is so strong that it pours billions of watts into Earth's own magnetic field every day.

Jupiter has 16 moons, a ring system, and an immense, complex atmosphere. Its atmosphere bristles with lightning and swirls with huge storm systems, including the Great Red Spot, a storm that has persisted for at least 100 years, perhaps as long as 300 years. Some scientists theorize that beneath the atmosphere there is no solid mass at the center of Jupiter, but that the planet's unique temperature and pressure conditions sustain a core whose density is more like liquid or slush.

	Max	Min
Angular Size
Brightness	-2.9	-2.0
Distance from Earth	6.47 AU	3.93 AU
Distance from Sun	5.45 AU	4.95 AU
Temperature	increases with depth	-163C

Mass	1.9 x 10²⁷kg (317.94 x Earth)
Size	142984 km @ Equator (11.209 x Earth)
Orbital Period	11.86 years

JavaJup

Akkana Peck created this excellent tool to track the locations of Jupiter's four Galilean moons, their shadows, and the Great Red Spot. The current positions are displayed, but one can modify the time in the dialog below the image as desired.