Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system and is known as a gas giant. 1)
It is named after the Roman king of the gods. 2)
Jupiter has a diameter of about 86,881 miles (139,822 kilometers), which is more than 11 times the diameter of Earth. 3)
The planet has the shortest day of any planet in the solar system, with one day lasting only 9 hours and 56 minutes. 4)
Jupiter has a very strong magnetic field, 14 times stronger than Earth's. 5)
It has at least 79 moons, the four largest of which are called the Galilean moons: Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. 6)
Jupiter's atmosphere is made up mostly of hydrogen and helium, with traces of other gases like methane, ammonia, and water vapor. 7)
The Great Red Spot, a giant storm on Jupiter's surface, has been raging for at least 400 years and is larger than the size of Earth. 8)
The first spacecraft to visit Jupiter was Pioneer 10 in 1973. 9)
The Juno spacecraft has been studying Jupiter since 2016 and has discovered new information about the planet's structure and magnetic field. 10)
Jupiter has a very faint ring system, discovered in 1979 by the Voyager 1 spacecraft. 11)
The pressure at Jupiter's core is so intense that the hydrogen gas there is squeezed into a liquid metallic state. 12)
Jupiter's atmosphere is responsible for producing some of the most powerful lightning in the solar system. 13)
It takes Jupiter about 12 Earth years to orbit the sun once. 14)
Jupiter's mass is so large that it actually affects the orbits of other planets in our solar system, particularly the inner rocky planets like Earth. 15)