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Transcript
Mars, Jupiter, Saturn
Jupiter
Jupiter otherwise known as Jove, (or Zeus in Greek mythology) was
the King of the Gods, the ruler of Olympus and the patron of the Roman
state. It is the fifth planet from the Sun, and it is more than twice as
massive as all the other planets combined.
Jupiter is the fourth brightest object in the sky (after the Sun, the Moon and
Venus). It has been known since prehistoric times as a bright "wandering
star".
Jupiter has 63 known satellites (as of Feb
2004): the four large Galilean moons, 34
smaller named ones, plus many more small
ones discovered recently but not yet named:
The four large Galilean moons are named after other people in Zeus’ life,
most are his lovers.
Jupiter is considered one of the gas planets. The gas planets are the
planets in our solar system which do not have solid surfaces, their gaseous
material simply gets denser with depth. What we see when looking at these
planets is the tops of clouds high in their atmospheres.
Jupiter is about 90% hydrogen and 10% helium with traces of methane,
water, ammonia and "rock". This is very close to the composition of the
primordial Solar Nebula from which the entire solar system was formed.
The info we know about the insides of Jupiter, like Mars, is mostly
educated guesswork, based on some basic facts that we can see from
observing it with our telescopes and also information we can gather from
studying the way gases behave in a laboratory. Jupiter probably has a core
of rocky material amounting to something like 10 to 15 Earth-masses.
Above the core lies the main bulk of the planet in the form of liquid metallic
hydrogen. This exotic form of the most common of elements is possible only
at enormouse pressures, which only exist because of Jupiters enormouse
size. The outermost layer is composed primarily of ordinary hydrogen and
helium. The atmosphere we see is just the very top of this deep layer. Water,
carbon dioxide, methane and other simple molecules are also present in tiny
amounts
.
Jupiter along with other gas planets has high velocity winds
(about 400mph) which are confined in wide bands of latitude.
Slight chemical and temperature differences between these
bands are responsible for the distinct alternating colors. The
light colored bands are called zones; the dark ones belts. The
colors correlate with the cloud's altitude: blue lowest, followed by browns
and whites, with reds highest. Sometimes we see the lower layers through
holes in the upper ones.
The Great Red Spot (GRS) has been seen by Earthly observers for more
than 300 years The GRS is an oval about 12,000 by 25,000 km, big enough
to hold two Earths. Current info indicates that the GRS is a high-pressure
storm region whose cloud tops are much higher and colder than the
surrounding regions. Nobody knows for sure why the GRS has stayed in
existence for so long.
Jupiter is just about as large in diameter as a gas planet can be. If more
material were to be added, it would be compressed by gravity such that the
overall radius would increase only slightly. A star can be larger only because
on the inside of stars nuclear fusion occurs (think of it like nuclear bombs
going off all the time, they blow things apart all the time). Jupiter would
have to aquire at least 80 times more material than it currently has to
become a star.
Jupiter has rings like Saturn's, but much fainter and smaller. They were
completely unexpected and only discovered when two of the Voyager 1
scientists insisted that they should at least check to see if any rings might be
present. Unlike Saturn's, Jupiter's rings are dark.
When it is in the nighttime sky, Jupiter is often the brightest "star" in the
sky (it is second only to Venus, which is seldom visible in a dark sky). The
four Galilean moons are easily visible with binoculars; a few bands and the
Great Red Spot can be seen with a small astronomical telescope.
As to the question of whether or not life could exist on Jupitert. So far as we
know Jupiter’s interior is an environment of pressures as great as three
million times the sea-level pressure on earth, and temperatures as high as
10,000 degrees. In conclusion, it’d be really amazing indeed if any life as
we know it, could exist there.