Jupiter

2008-05-08T19:14:20Z

MaAmazing: /* Ancient knowledge and naming */

{{Planet
| image=Jumpsas.jpg
| caption=This processed color image of Jupiter was produced in 1990 by the U.S. Geological Survey from a Voyager image captured in 1979
|symbol=Jupiter symbol.svg
|discname=Known to ancients
|origname=Roman king of gods<ref name=nasa1>"[http://solarsystem.jpl.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Jupiter&Display=Overview Entry for Jupiter]." ''Solar System Exploration'', [[NASA]]. Accessed March 3, 2008.</ref>
|order=6
|primary=Sun
|periapsis=4.95 AU<ref name=nasa1/>
|apoapsis=5.46 AU<ref name=nasa1/>
|semimajor=5.203 AU<ref name=nasa1/><ref name=nasa2>Williams, David R. "[http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/jupiterfact.html Jupiter Fact Sheet]." National Space Science Data Center, [[NASA]], November 2, 2007. Accessed March 2, 2008.</ref>
|bode=5.2 AU<ref name=calc>Calculated</ref>
|circumference=32.675 AU<ref name=nasa1/>
|eccentricity=0.048<ref name=nasa1/>
|sidereal=11.862 a<ref name=nasa1/><ref name=nasa2/>
|synodic=398.88 da (1.092 a)<ref name=nasa2/>
|orbitspeed=13.07 km/s<ref name=nasa1/><ref name=nasa2/>
|inclination=1.305°<ref name=nasa1/>
|reference=the ecliptic
|siderealday=9.925 h (0.414 da)<ref name=nasa1/><ref name=nasa2/>
|solarday=9.9259 h<ref name=nasa2/>
|axialtilt=3.13°<ref name=nasa1/>
|mass=1.8986 * 10<sup>27</sup> kg (317.705 * earth)<ref name=nasa1/>
|density=1,326 kg/m³<ref name=nasa1/>
|surfacegrav=22.88 m/s² (2.333 ''g'')<ref name=nasa1/>
|escapespeed=59.56 km/s<ref name=nasa1/>
|equatorradius =71,492 km<ref name=nasa1/>
|surfacearea=61,400,000,000 km² (120.375 * earth)<ref name=nasa1/>
|meantemp=152 K<ref name=nasa1/>
|moons=28
|composition=90% hydrogen and 10% helium<ref name=nasa1/>
|color=Colored latitudinal bands
|albedo=0.52<ref name=ssdphys>"[http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/?planet_phys_par Planet Physical Characteristics]." Solar System Dynamics, [[JPL]], [[NASA]]. Accessed March 3, 2008.</ref>
}}
'''Jupiter''' is the fifth [[planet]] from the [[sun]], and the most massive. In fact, this [[gas giant]] is the largest body in the [[solar system]] except for the sun itself, and more than two times as massive as all the other planets combined. In composition it closely resembles a [[star]], so much so that some authorities hold that had it been eighty times as massive, it would have become a star.

== Ancient knowledge and naming ==
Named after the ruler of the Roman gods, Jupiter is large and bright enough to be seen by the naked eye. In fact it is the fourth-brightest object in the night sky, after the [[Sun]], the [[Moon]], and the planet [[Venus]].<ref name=arnett>Arnett, Bill. "[http://www.nineplanets.org/jupiter.html Entry for Jupiter]." ''The <s>Nine</s> 8 Planets'', April 10, 2005. Accessed March 3, 2008.</ref> Jupiter is conspicuous and easy to recognize. An observer carrying 7-power field glasses (of a type used for birding or hunting) will see a round disk that shines steadily. An observer with a small telescope should also be able to resolve the [[Galilean moons]], as [[Galileo Galilei]] himself did. They will appear, as they did to Galileo, as "stars" traveling in "formation" with Jupiter and changing their positions relative to Jupiter in a single night of observation.

The [[Babylonia]]ns believed that their god [[Marduk]] set Jupiter in the sky to guide the stars.<ref name=nelson>Nelson, Clark. "[http://www.timeemits.com/HoH_Articles/399-Day_Mean_Synodic_Period_of_Jupiter.htm 399-day Mean Synodic Period of Jupiter]." <http://www.timeemits.com/>, 2006. Accessed March 3, 2008.</ref> Jupiter might have had an influence in the invention of several ancient calendars, including the Mayan calendar, the Egyptian calendar, the ancient (pre-Hillel II) Hebrew calendar, and possibly the calendar in use (at least by the [[Seth]]ite generations of [[Adam]]) before the [[Great flood|Great Flood]]).<ref name=nelson/>

The name of the Roman god derives from [[Japheth]], one of the sons of [[Noah]].<ref>Cooper, Bill, "After the Flood", 1995, p.40, New Wine, ISBN 1 874367 40 X.</ref>

Jesus created jupitar with his large penis

== Orbital characteristics ==
Jupiter completes one slightly eccentric orbit around the [[Sun]] in 11.86 years, and returns to the same position in [[Earth]]'s night sky in roughly 399 years.<ref name=nasa2/><ref name=nelson/> Its mean distance from the Sun is about 5.2 AU--almost exactly the distance predicted by the [[Titius-Bode law]] of planetary distances. Though Jupiter is the fifth ''planet'' from the Sun, it is actually the ''sixth'' object of a size requiring the assumption of a spheroidal shape. Hence ''n=6'' is the proper number to use in the Bode's Law formula.

== Rotational characteristics ==
Jupiter has a very short sidereal day of about 9.92 hours. However, its latitudinal cloud bands rotate at different speeds, and some of these appear to rotate retrograde. Astronomers once calculated the Jovian day from observations of the equatorial cloud band, but today they rely on the periodicity of Jupiter's magnetic field.<ref name=nasa3>Gierasch, Peter J., and Philip D. Nicholson. "Jupiter." World Book Online Reference Center. 2004. World Book, Inc. <http://www.worldbookonline.com/wb/Article?id=ar293080.> Hosted as "[http://www.nasa.gov/worldbook/jupiter_worldbook.html Entry for Jupiter]," World Book at [[NASA]]. Accessed March 3, 2008.</ref>

== Physical characteristics ==
Jupiter is about 318 times as massive as Earth, and has a radius of 71,492 km (44,423 miles). Its atmosphere is composed primarily of 86% [[hydrogen]], 14% [[helium]], and traces of [[methane]], [[ammonia]], [[phosphine]], [[water]], [[acetylene]], [[ethane]], [[germanium]], and [[carbon monoxide]].<ref name=nasa3/> It is so thick that no record exists of the surface, if Jupiter has one in the traditional sense--though Jupiter might have a heavy-metal core having a composition similar to that of [[Earth]] but 20 to 30 times as massive.<ref name=nasa3/>

=== The Great Red Spot and other storms ===
The planet endures continual storms. The most famous of these is the Great Red Spot, which has raged for at least three hundred years. The most precise estimate of its duration is 342 years,<ref name=Than>Than, Ker. "[http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/060731_red_spots.html Differences Spotted in Jupiter's Big Red Storms]." <http://www.space.com/>, July 31, 2006. Accessed March 3, 2008.</ref> but this might refer merely to the first time that someone observed it with a telescope capable of resolving it. It is large enough to encompass the entirety of the [[Earth]] and rotates anticlockwise along Jupiter's equator. Winds at its edge circulate at 360 km/h<ref name=nasa3/>, far faster than those of the most powerful [[hurricane]] ever recorded on Earth.

=== Radiation of heat ===
Jupiter actually radiates 1.7 times the heat that strikes it from the Sun.<ref name=Weisstein>Weisstein, Eric W. "[http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/astronomy/Jupiter.html Jupiter]." ''Eric Weisstein's World of Astronomy'', accessed March 3, 2008.</ref> This could be due to Kelvin-Helmholtz gravitational compression, a process that also limits the size that Jupiter can have.<ref name=arnett/>

== Magnetic field ==
Jupiter has a magnetic field about 14 times as strong as that of Earth. This field tends to shield Jupiter from the [[solar wind]]. However, the field has also trapped large numbers of radioactive particles in a Van-Allen-like radiation belt<ref name=nasa3/> that actually encompasses the orbits of the seven innermost moons. The magnetic field extends beyond the far side of Jupiter for at least 700 million kilometers.<ref name=nasa3/>

== Ring system ==
Jupiter does have a ring, consisting of three components, called the halo, the main ring, and the gossamer ring. This ring lies entirely within the region occupied by the four innermost moons, and probably derives its substance from escaping dust from the two innermost moons, [[Metis]] and [[Adrastea]]. The average size of the ring particles is 10 microns, comparable in size to the particles in [[tobacco]] smoke.<ref name=nasa4>Harvey, Samantha. "[http://solarsystem.jpl.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Jupiter&Display=Rings Jupiter:Rings]." ''Solar System Exploration'', [[NASA]], February 7, 2008. Accessed March 3, 2008.</ref>

== Problems for uniformitarian theories ==
Jupiter, as mentioned above, is radiating heat at 1.7 times the rate that it receives it from the [[Sun]]. That this heat flux could be solely due to Jupiter losing the heat of its formation as a planet 4.6 billion years ago begs explanation.

Jupiter's sidereal day is less than ten Earth hours long. If Jupiter formed simply as an accretion aggregate of the [[nebula hypothesis|solar nebula]], then it should not have acquired such tremendous angular momentum. The problem involves not merely the short sidereal day but also Jupiter's tremendous mass.

The alternative theory is that Jupiter formed as a "failed protostar" at the center of its own nebula. But Jupiter never ignited--and furthermore, none of Jupiter's 63 moons is gaseous. Therefore a key event in the nebular sequence did not take place. Besides, the four dwarf-planet-sized [[Galilean moons]] have vastly differing apparent geological "ages."

== Exploration ==
[[Galileo Galilei]] studied Jupiter extensively and in the process discovered its four largest moons--[[Io]], [[Europa]], [[Ganymede]], and [[Callisto]], also known as the [[Galilean moons]]. Many other astronomers studied Jupiter from Earth-bound telescopes for hundreds of years. In the process they discovered twelve of Jupiter's moons and the Great Red Spot, but did not discover Jupiter's ring system.

Seven spacecraft, all from the [[United States]], have visited Jupiter thus far. First to do so was [[Pioneer 10]] (December 3, 1973), which suffered tremendously from the radiation belt but still provided the evidence for Jupiter's [[magnetosphere]]. [[Pioneer 11]] was next (December, 1974) and took far better images of Jupiter and its Great Red Spot.

[[Voyager 1]] (March, 1979) and [[Voyager 2]] (July, 1979) gave the first comprehensive views of Jupiter and the Jovian system, including the discovery of its rings, the discovery of four moons inside [[Io]], and the first extensive studies of the [[Galilean moons]].

[[Ulysses]] (February 1992) made a brief flyby of Jupiter in order to place itself in polar orbit around the Sun. Nevertheless [[European Space Agency]] scientists used this opportunity to make further measurements of Jupiter's magnetosphere and the effect upon it by the solar wind.

[[Galileo Project|Galileo]] reached Jupiter in 1995. It released a probe to dive into Jupiter's atmosphere; that probe transmitted for nearly an hour before the tremendous pressures crushed it. Galileo's orbiter remained in the system for nearly eight years, through two extensions of its mission, and conducted the most extensive surveys of the Galilean moons to day. Eventually, with the craft low on fuel, mission planners dived it into Jupiter to prevent its possibly crashing into [[Europa]], rupturing Europa's ice sheet, and contaminating the liquid ocean that astronomers now suspect lies a mere 10 km deep to the ice and could yet harbor [[extraterrestrial life]].<ref name=nasa3/>

[[Cassini-Huygens mission|Cassini]] flew by Jupiter briefly in 2000 on its way to [[Saturn]]. While in the Jovian system, it took the image shown at the top of this article.

The [[New Horizons mission]] will include a Jupiter flyby in its journey to the [[Pluto]] system.

== References==
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{{Solarsystem}}

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Jupiter