Jupiter

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There is an asteroid belt that orbits around Jupiter. Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun, and its orbit is in between Mars and Saturn. It orbits the Sun at an average distance of 484 million miles (779 million Km) and it almost takes twelve years for Jupiter to orbit the Sun.

​ Jupiter has the more moons than any other planet. Among Jupiter's moons is the largest moon in the solar system, the most volcanically active body and some of the most promising places to find life in our solar system. Many of these moons are so large that they would be classfied as planets if they orbited the Sun. Jupiter also has some of the smallest moons and has helped spark discussion on whether a new system of moon classification is needed.

Jupiter rotates once every 9 hours and 55 minutes. Jupiter isn't a hard planet. If you tried to walk on it you would fall straight through it because it is made of liquid and gases with a hardened core.



Jupiter's upper atmosphere is composed of about 88 to 92% hydrogen and 8 to 12% helium of gas molecules. Since a helium atom has about four times as much mass as a hydrogen atom, the composition changes when described in terms of the proportion of mass by different atoms. The atmosphere contains trace amounts of methane, water vapor, ammonia, and silicon-based compounds. There are also traces of carbon, ethane, hydrogen sulfide, neon, oxygen, phosphine, and sulfur. The outermost layer of the atmosphere contains crystals of frozen ammonia. Through infrared and ultraviolet measurements, trace amounts of benzene and other hydrocarbons have also been found.

The best known feature of Jupiter is the Great Red Spot, a persistent anticyclonic storm located south of the equator that is larger than Earth. It is known to have been in existence since at least 1831, and possibly since 1665. Mathematical models suggest that the storm is stable and may be a permanent feature of the planet. The storm is large enough to be visible through Earth-based telescopes with an aperture of 12 cm or larger. The oval object rotates clockwise, in a period of about six days.