All About Jupiter

Jupiter is the largest planet within our solar system, located five planets from the Sun. Jupiter has a total radius of nearly 70,000 kilometers, which is second only to that of the Sun’s 696,000 kilometer radius. Jupiter’s overall size is 318 times greater than that of the Earth. Jupiter is 2.5 times larger than all of the other planets in the solar system combined. It takes this massive planet a whopping 4,333 days to orbit the Sun one full time!

Jupiter’s atmosphere is composed of about 90% hydrogen and 10% helium gas, including a small rocky core that is encompassed by metallic and liquid hydrogen and hydrogen gas.

The planet Jupiter has 63 discovered moons on record. The four largest of these moons, Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, are commonly referred to as the Galilean Moons. The Galilean Moons were discovered by Galileo Galilei, and can easily be seen from earth with a weak telescope or even the naked eye under especially clear conditions.

For more information on Jupiter, simply choose on any of the Jupiter articles, Jupiter pictures, or other interactive Jupiter features below.