Jupiter has a thick atmosphere made of hydrogen, helium, methane, ammonia, and sulfur. But gravity is the biggest part of Jupiter. The gravity is 2.6 that of Earth. So if you weighed 36 kilograms (80 pounds) on Earth you would weigh 94 kilograms (208 pounds) on Jupiter. But its gravitational pull is so strong it can push you down till you get crushed.
Jupiter is the biggest planet in the Solar System. It is 142,984 kilometers (88,846 miles) in diameter. So if Jupiter were hollow 1,300 Earths would fit inside.
Jupiter gives off twice as much heat then received from the sun. It is 30,000 C (54,000 F) at the core. At the top of the clouds it is -157 C (-250 F). And it is 3315 C (6000 F) 966 kilometers (600 miles) beneath the top of the clouds. Scientists say that during the day you would probably burn and at night you would probably freeze to death!
Jupiter was named after Jupiter, the most powerful and important of all Roman gods. They named it after Jupiter because of his great size.
Jupiter takes 9 hours and 51 miniutes to rotate on its axis or one Jupiter day. However one Jupiter year or how long it takes to revolve around the sun is almost 12 Earth years.
Jupiter looks striped. And the entire planet is covered with red, orange, tan, yellow, white, and purple bands. These bands are clouds that are hundreds of miles. In 1664, astronomers looked through a telescope and saw a huge, reddish spot on the southern part of Jupiter.In 1972, a spacecraft was launched to Jupiter and sent back the first close-up pictures of Jupiter. They showed that the reddish spot was really a gigantic hurricane-like storm that has been raging for more then 300 years!
Astronomers have discovered black belts that are really swirling clouds of gas. And that Jupiter is the second brightest planet in the nightsky.
Astronomers have also discovered that 61 moons are orbiting Jupiter. They think that some of the moons were somewhere in space and the gravity pulled it toward Jupiter. It also has 3 rings that were thought werent there.
Jupiter has alot of things that werent discovered. Although as time went on we got technology that helped us learn more about Jupiter.
Bibliography
Book
Simon, Charnan. Our Galaxy and Beyond! Jupiter. Berendes, Mary. Copyright 2004.
Internet
http://stardate.org/astro-guide/ssguide/jupiter
