Jupiter

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the planet. For the Roman god, see Jupiter (god). For other uses,
see Jupiter (disambiguation).

Jupiter

Jupiter in true colour,[a] taken by the Hubble Space

Telescope in January 2024[b]

Designations

/ˈdʒuːpɪtər/ ⓘ[2]
Pronunciation

Named after Jupiter

Adjectives Jovian (/ˈdʒoʊviən/)

Symbol

Orbital characteristics[3]

Epoch J2000
Aphelion 5.4570 AU (816.363 million km)

Perihelion 4.9506 AU (740.595 million km)

Semi-major axis 5.2038 AU (778.479 million km)

Eccentricity 0.0489
Orbital period  11.862 yr
(sidereal)
 4,332.59 d
 10,476.8 Jovian solar
days[4]
Orbital period 398.88 d
(synodic)
Average orbital speed 13.06 km/s

Mean anomaly 20.020°[5]

Inclination  1.303° to ecliptic[5]

 6.09° to Sun's equator[5]
 0.32° to invariable plane[6]
Longitude of 100.464°
ascending node
Time of perihelion January 21, 2023[7]
Argument of 273.867°[5]
perihelion

Known satellites 115 (as of 2026)[8]

Physical characteristics[3][9][10]
Mean radius 69886±0.4 km[c][11]
10.969 x of Earth
Equatorial radius 71488±0.4 km[c][11]

 11.208 x of Earth's
 0.10275 x of Sun's

Polar radius 66842±0.4 km[c][11]

10.516 x of Earth's

Flattening 0.06499
Surface area 6.1457×1010 km2
120.5 × of Earth's

Volume 1.4309×1015 km3[c]

1,321 × of Earth's

Mass (1.898125±0.000088)×1027 kg[12]

 317.8 × of Earth's
 0.00095 × of Sun's[13]
Mean density 1.326 g/cm3[d]
Surface gravity 24.79 m/s2
2.528 g0[c][14]
Moment of inertia 0.2756±0.0006[15]
factor
Escape velocity 59.5 km/s[c]
Synodic rotation 9.9258 h (9 h 55 m 33 s)[4]
period
Sidereal rotation 9.9250 hours (9 h 55 m 30 s)
period
Equatorial 12.6 km/s
rotation velocity
Axial tilt 3.13° (to orbit)
North pole right 268.057°; 17h 52m 14s[16]
ascension
North pole declination 64.495°[16]

Albedo  0.503 (Bond)[17]

 0.538 (geometric)[18]

Temperature 88 K (−185 °C) (blackbody

temperature)

Surface temp. min mean max

1 bar 165 K
0.1 bar 78 K 128 K

Apparent magnitude −2.94[19] to −1.66[19]

 Absolute −9.4[20]
magnitude (H)
Angular diameter 29.8" to 50.1"

Atmosphere[3]
Surface pressure 200–600 kPa (30–90 psi)
(opaque cloud deck)[21]
Scale height 27 km (17 mi)

Composition by  89%±2.0% hydrogen

volume  10%±2.0% helium
 0.3%±0.1% methane
 0.026%±0.004% ammonia
 0.0028%±0.001% hydrogen
deuteride
 0.0006%±0.0002% ethane
 0.0004%±0.0004% water

Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun, and the largest in the Solar System. It is a gas
giant with a mass nearly 2.5 times that of all the other planets in the Solar
System combined and slightly less than one-thousandth the mass of the Sun. The
diameter of Jupiter is 11 times that of Earth and a tenth that of the Sun. It orbits the Sun
at a distance of 5.20 AU (778.5 Gm), with an orbital period of 11.86 years. Jupiter is
the third-brightest natural object in the Earth's night sky, after the Moon and Venus, and
has been observed since prehistoric times. Its name derives from that of Jupiter, the
chief deity of ancient Roman religion.

Jupiter was the first of the Sun's planets to form, and its inward migration during the
primordial phase of the Solar System affected much of the formation history of the other
planets. Jupiter's atmosphere consists of 76% hydrogen and 24% helium by mass, with
a denser interior. It contains traces of the elements carbon, oxygen, sulfur, neon, and
compounds such as ammonia, water vapour, phosphine, hydrogen sulfide,
and hydrocarbons. Jupiter's helium abundance is 80% of the Sun's, similar to Saturn's
composition.

The outer atmosphere is divided into a series of latitudinal bands, with turbulence and
storms along their interacting boundaries; the most obvious result of this is the Great
Red Spot, a giant storm that has been recorded since 1831.

Because of Jupiter's rapid rotation rate, one turn in ten hours, the shape of the planet is
an oblate spheroid; the radius to the equator is about 7% larger than the radius to its
poles. Its internal structure is believed to consist of an outer mantle of fluid metallic
hydrogen and a diffuse inner core of denser material. The ongoing contraction of
Jupiter's interior generates more heat than the planet receives from the Sun.
Jupiter's magnetic field is the strongest and second-largest contiguous structure in the
Solar System, generated by eddy currents within the fluid, metallic hydrogen core.
The solar wind interacts with the magnetosphere, extending it outward and affecting
Jupiter's orbit.

At least 115 moons orbit the planet; the four largest moons—Io, Europa, Ganymede,
and Callisto—orbit within the magnetosphere and are visible with common binoculars.
Ganymede, the largest of the four, is larger than the planet Mercury. Jupiter is
surrounded by a faint system of planetary rings. The rings of Jupiter consist mainly of
dust and have three main segments: an inner torus of particles known as the halo, a
relatively bright main ring, and an outer gossamer ring. The rings have a reddish colour
in visible and near-infrared light. The age of the ring system is unknown, possibly dating
back to Jupiter's formation. Since 1973, Jupiter has been visited by nine robotic probes:
seven flybys and two dedicated orbiters (with two more en route). Jupiter-like
exoplanets have also been found in other planetary systems.

Name and symbol

In both the ancient Greek and Roman civilizations, Jupiter was named after the chief
god of the divine pantheon: Zeus to the Greeks and Jupiter to the
Romans.[22] The International Astronomical Union formally adopted the name Jupiter for
the planet in 1976 and has since named its newly discovered satellites for the god's
lovers, favourites, and descendants.[23] The planetary symbol for Jupiter, , descends
from a Greek zeta with a horizontal stroke, ⟨Ƶ⟩, as an abbreviation for Zeus.[24][25]

In Latin, Iovis is the genitive case of Iuppiter, i.e. Jupiter. It is associated with the
etymology of Zeus ('sky father'). The English equivalent, Jove, is known to have come
into use as a poetic name for the planet around the 14th century. [26]

Jovian is the adjectival form of Jupiter. The older adjectival form jovial, employed by
astrologers in the Middle Ages, has come to mean 'happy' or 'merry', moods ascribed to
Jupiter's influence in astrology.[27]

The original Greek deity Zeus supplies the root zeno-, which is used to form some
Jupiter-related words, such as zenography.[e]

Formation and migration

Main article: Grand tack hypothesis
See also: Formation and evolution of the Solar System
Jupiter is believed to be the oldest planet in the Solar System, having formed just one
million years after the Sun and roughly 50 million years before Earth. [28] Current models
of Solar System formation suggest that Jupiter formed at or beyond the snow line: a
distance from the early Sun where the temperature was sufficiently cold
for volatiles such as water to condense into solids.[29] First forming a solid core, the
planet then accumulated its gaseous atmosphere. Therefore, the planet must have
formed before the solar nebula was fully dispersed. [30] During its formation, Jupiter's
mass gradually increased until it had 20 times the mass of the Earth, approximately half
of which was made up of silicates, ices and other heavy-element constituents.[28] When
the proto-Jupiter grew larger than 50 Earth masses it created a gap in the solar
nebula.[28] Thereafter, the growing planet reached its final mass in 3–4 million years.[28][30]

According to the "grand tack hypothesis", Jupiter began to form at a distance of

roughly 3.5 AU (520 million km; 330 million mi) from the Sun. As the young
planet accreted mass, its interaction with the gas disk orbiting the Sun and the orbital
resonances from Saturn caused it to migrate inwards.[29][31] This upset the orbits of
several super-Earths orbiting closer to the Sun, causing them to collide
destructively.[32] Saturn would later have begun to migrate inwards at a faster rate than
Jupiter until the two planets became captured in a 3:2 mean motion resonance at
approximately 1.5 AU (220 million km; 140 million mi) from the Sun.[33] This changed the
direction of migration, causing them to migrate away from the Sun and out of the inner
system to their current locations.[32] All of this happened over a period of 3–6 million
years, with the final migration of Jupiter occurring over several hundred thousand
years.[31][34] Jupiter's migration from the inner Solar System eventually allowed the inner
planets—including Earth—to form from the rubble.[35]

There are several unresolved issues with the grand tack hypothesis. The resulting
formation timescales of terrestrial planets appear to be inconsistent with the measured
elemental composition.[36] Jupiter would likely have settled into an orbit much closer to
the Sun if it had migrated through the solar nebula.[37] Some competing models of Solar
System formation predict the formation of Jupiter with orbital properties that are close to
those of the present-day planet.[30] Other models predict Jupiter forming at distances
much further out, such as 18 AU (2.7 billion km; 1.7 billion mi).[38][39]

According to the Nice model, the infall of proto-Kuiper belt objects over the first 600
million years of Solar System history caused Jupiter and Saturn to migrate from their
initial positions into a 1:2 resonance, which caused Saturn to shift into a higher orbit,
disrupting the orbits of Uranus and Neptune, depleting the Kuiper belt, and triggering
the Late Heavy Bombardment.[40]

According to the Jumping-Jupiter scenario, Jupiter's migration through the early Solar
System could have led to the ejection of a fifth gas giant. This hypothesis suggests that
during its orbital migration, Jupiter's gravitational influence disrupted the orbits of other
gas giants, potentially casting one planet out of the Solar System entirely. The dynamics
of such an event would have dramatically altered the formation and configuration of the
Solar System, leaving behind only the four gas giants humans observe today. [41]

Based on Jupiter's composition, researchers have made the case for an initial formation
outside the molecular nitrogen (N2) snow line, which is estimated at 20–30 AU (3.0–
4.5 billion km; 1.9–2.8 billion mi) from the Sun, and possibly even outside the argon
snow line, which may be as far as 40 AU (6.0 billion km; 3.7 billion mi).[42][43] Having
formed at one of these extreme distances, Jupiter would then have, over a roughly
700,000-year period, migrated inwards to its current location, [38][39] during an epoch
approximately 2–3 million years after the planet began to form. In this model, Saturn,
Uranus, and Neptune would have formed even further out than Jupiter, and Saturn
would also have migrated inwards.[38]

Physical characteristics
Jupiter is a gas giant, meaning its chemical composition is primarily hydrogen and
helium. These materials are classified as gasses in planetary geology, a term that does
not denote the state of matter. It is the largest planet in the Solar System, with a
diameter of 142,976 km (88,841 mi) at its equator, giving it a volume 1,321 times that of
the Earth.[3][44] Its average density, 1.326 g/cm3,[f] is lower than those of the four terrestrial
planets.[46][47]