Good morning. It's Tuesday, Aug. 12, and today we're covering Jupiter. Continuing the ongoing explorations of the solar system that began with Earth and Mars, we now travel beyond the asteroid belt to investigate the king of planets.
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Background
Jupiter is the fifth-closest planet to the sun and the largest and oldest planet in the solar system.
Named after the king of Roman gods, this gas giant is most easily recognized by its Great Red Spot—a hurricane-like storm larger than Earth that has existed for about 200 years.
With more than twice the mass of all other planets combined, thousands of objects—including over 90 moons—orbit Jupiter, and its gravity has played a key role in the solar system’s evolution.
Formation
As with all planets in our solar system, Jupiter formed from what remained of the cloud of gas that collapsed into the sun and protoplanetary disk (see examples).
The disk contained heavy elements, dust grains, and pebbles that collided gravitationally, forming larger pieces of matter—called planetesimals—that would become the building blocks for planets.
These planetesimals likely collided to form Jupiter within a few million years, fast enough to accumulate gas from the disk before solar winds blew it away (watch explainer).
However, models differ on where Jupiter formed to have attained its observed composition. Some simulations suggest it migrated inward from near Uranus’ orbit or migrated inward from the asteroid belt before migrating back out again (watch explainer).
Atmosphere
Convection, the transfer of heat through the movement of fluids, and rapid rotation produce Jupiter’s latitudinal banding, its horizontal streaks, and turbulent features (see gallery).
For billions of years, Jupiter has been shrinking and generating more heat than it receives from the sun by converting gravitational potential energy. Its core—almost five times hotter than the sun’s surface—heats fluids into rising, while cooler fluids sink.
Changes in temperature and composition result in different chemical reactions that produce various colors—rising gases tend to be white, and sinking ones tend to be orange.
Observations of Jupiter reveal differential rotation—different latitudes rotate at different rates. Averaged across all locations, a day on Jupiter is 9.9 hours long, making it the fastest rotating planet in the solar system.
Jupiter’s rapid rotation smears the rising and sinking material across the planet into bright zones and dark belts, respectively. These form the characteristic east-west zonal flows that wrap around the planet like global jet streams. The opposing flows at the boundaries between belts and zones create eddies—turbulent swirls of fluid—including the Great Red Spot (learn more).
Jupiter has three unique cloud layers: a top layer of colorless ammonia ice, a middle layer of ammonia hydrosulfide ice crystals, and a lower layer of water ice and vapor. Clouds of sulfur- and phosphorus-containing gases produce the reds, browns, and yellows seen in belts.
Interior
Like the sun, Jupiter is mainly made of hydrogen in different states of matter.
Modeling its interior using observational data suggests that the hydrogen gas gradually liquefies with depth until about 20,000 km (12,427 miles), where the immense pressure pushes electrons out of hydrogen atoms, turning them into a highly conductive liquid metal.
Metallic hydrogen is thought to produce Jupiter’s magnetosphere, which is larger than the sun and capable of producing auroras (see them here).
Jupiter’s core is poorly understood. Observations from the Juno spacecraft suggest it is not distinct from the surrounding metallic hydrogen but “fuzzy,” partly composed of rocky material, and extending to nearly half the planet’s diameter. |
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Hot Jupiters are giant planets that orbit very close to their host star |
Discovered in 1995, hot Jupiters are a class of exoplanets—planets orbiting stars other than the sun—with size and mass similar to Jupiter. They are most commonly found orbiting metal-rich stars and have become essential for testing theories of planetary system formation. Read about them here. |
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In 1994, fragments of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 crashed into Jupiter |
Hubble captured the collisions, which created massive black impact sites visible from space. It represented the first time scientists could prepare for and observe an interplanetary collision in real time, allowing them to gather valuable information about Jupiter’s atmosphere. Watch the Hubble team lead discuss the event here. |
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Jupiter may have influenced the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs |
Despite its reputation as Earth's cosmic shield, mathematical analysis shows that Jupiter’s gravity pulls asteroids into Earth-crossing orbits. Simulations also reveal that Earth experiences over three times more asteroid impacts because of Jupiter’s influence than if Jupiter didn’t exist. Read a breakdown of these findings here. |
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Galileo's discovery of Jupiter’s moons led to many scientific advancements |
Beyond challenging Earth-centric views upon their discovery in 1610, the orbits of Galilean moons were later analyzed to contribute to early astrometry and astronomical interferometry. Measurements of eclipses were also used to estimate the speed of light. Read more about these and other discoveries here. |
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Io, Jupiter’s moon, is the most volcanically active body in the solar system |
The innermost and third-largest of Jupiter's four Galilean moons, Io’s volcanic activity is driven by tidal heating from Jupiter's gravitational pull. Its atmosphere is very thin and primarily composed of sulfur dioxide, and its volcanic eruptions can cause nearby temperatures to exceed 1,000 C. Learn more about the moon here. |
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Juice and Europa Clipper will search for habitability near Jupiter |
Three of Jupiter’s moons—Ganymede, Europa, and Callisto—possess subsurface oceans that may support life. While Clipper will perform flybys of Europa, Juice will be the first spacecraft to orbit a moon in the outer solar system. Find out more about the collaboration between NASA and the European Space Agency here. |
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Like all great scientists, we love spending time researching the latest scientific breakthroughs, tech releases, engaging explainers, and the connections between science and society that are making headlines. Here’s what we found this week.
> The intentional destruction of a carbon dioxide-monitoring satellite
NPR | Rebecca Hersher. NASA employees have been asked to draw up plans for the termination of the only federal satellite missions designed and built to monitor this greenhouse gas, despite an operational lifetime through 2029. This article details the importance of the mission and how it has surprisingly helped farmers. (Read)
> What has been discovered after 30 years of menopause research
Science Friday | Flora Lichtman. The Study of Women's Health Across the Nation followed 3,000 women from their premenopausal life stage into their mid-70s to identify trends in how menopause is experienced and treated. This podcast details the study's findings, menopausal myths, and ongoing research challenges. (Listen)
> Fraudulent scientific papers are being published on an industrial scale
The New York Times | Carl Zimmer. Paper mills are increasingly threatening the integrity of scientific studies by writing fake manuscripts and selling authorship slots. An analysis of over a million scientific papers uncovered a network of large-scale fraud in which corrupt editors and publishers collude, empowered by AI. (Read)
> Despite a century of progress, physicists still don't get quantum mechanics
Gizmodo | Gayoung Lee. A survey of 1,101 physicists found no clear consensus on the meaning of the mathematical framework, despite overwhelming agreement on its accuracy. This article highlights key takeaways from the survey and provides follow-ups with theoretical physicists about the results. (Read)
> Why one of the world's biggest earthquakes didn't cause a massive tsunami
The Washington Post | Kasha Patel and Scott Dance. An 8.8-magnitude earthquake struck eastern Russia on July 30, prompting tsunami warnings across the Pacific Ocean that were met with relatively small waves. Learn how a lack of an underwater landslide and unique earthquake characteristics kept distant damage low. (Read)
> How nuclear power may drive the future of space science
Planetary Radio | Casey Dreier. Solar energy limitations, particularly for missions far from the sun, have brought renewed focus to nuclear power sources. This podcast explores the benefits and possibilities of this power in space missions, including how safety regulations may be used to gain territorial control of planets. (Listen) |
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New in 1440 Science & Technology |
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Jupiter has four faint rings, primarily made of dust. |
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