Jupiter

Size
==== Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system. Jupiters diameter is 88,846 miles, more than eleven times larger than Earth. Jupiter is the fifth planet from the sun. Its average distance from the sun is about 483,780,000 miles ,more than five times Earth's distance.(1)====

**Surface and Interior**
====Jupiter is made of gas and liquid. There is no solid surface.(1) Because of this, Jupiter is sometimes called a Gas Giant. Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are also Gas Giants.(2) The surface is made of red, yellow, brown, and white clouds. These clouds are made of light and dark areas that circle the planet. The lighter areas are called zones and the darker areas are called belts.(1) The zones are usually white or yellow. the belts are red or brown. The belts tend to have a higher temperature than the zones.(2) The interior of Jupiter is made mostly of hydrogen. Jupiter's core is made of layers. About 10,000 km below Jupiter's surface the hydrogen turns into liquid hydrogen. This is similar to the Sun's core. below this there is a layer of mostly ice. At the very center is rock. The center is about the weight of ten Earths.(4)====

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The Great Red Spot[[image:moon.jpg align="right" caption=" Figure 2: Callisto, a moon of Jupiter"]]
====On Jupiter's surface there is a large oval-shaped spot. This is called the Great Red Spot( See Figure 1). It is a large swirling mass of gas that resembles a hurricane.The Great Red Spot is about three times larger than Earth.(1) It is about 12,000 by 25,000 km.(3)The spot may get it's color from small amounts of sulfur and phosphorus.(1) There are other spots but they aren't as big as the Great Red Spot.(3)==== = =

Moons and Rings
==== Jupiter has sixty-three total moons. The four main moons are called the Galilean moons, which includes Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto(See Figure 2). They are called the Galilean moons because a man named Galileo first discoverd them. Jupiter also has rings. There are three rings, but they are all very dim. They aren't as noticable as Saturn's rings. They appear to be made of dust particles. The main ring is twenty miles thick and 4,000 miles wide.(1) Jupiter also has auroras around its poles( See Figure 3).(2) These auroras are caused by volcanic material from the moon, Io(eye-oh). Io has extreme lava flows, lava lakes, and volcanic geysers. It's mountains reach much higher than any mountain on earth.(4) ====

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Orbit
====Jupiter takes almost twelve earth years to orbit the sun. Its orbit is slightly oval-shaped. Jupiter rotates faster than any other planet. It takes 9 hours and 56 minutes to spin around once on its axis, compared with 24 hours for Earth.(1)====

====Jupiter is the heaviest planet. It's mass is 318 times larger than Earth's. Although Jupiter has such a large mass, it has a low density. Jupiiter's density is 1/4 that of Earth. The planet's density is slightly more than water. Because of this, scientists believe Jupiter is made of hydrogen and helium, the lightest elements.(1)====

Temperature
====The core of Jupiter is believed to be 13,000-35,000 degrees Celsius. At the top of Jupiter's clouds the temperature is about -150 degrees Celsius.(2) Jupiter is the fourth brightest object in the sky. The only things brighter are the Sun, the Moon, and Venus.(3)====

=Works Cited=

1. __NASA-Jupiter__. 2007. NASA. 3 Feb. 2009. [].

2. __Planet Jupiter__. 10 Feb. 2009. http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr161/lect/jupiter/jupiter.html.

3. __Jupiter__. 2005. Bill Arnett. 22 Feb. 2009. http://www.nineplanets.org/jupiter.html.

4. __Jupiter__. 2002. Calvin J. Hamilton. 22 Feb. 2009. http://www.solarviews.com/eng/jupiter.htm.

Pictures

1. Nasa. "The Great Red Spot". Online Photo. __Nasa-Jupiter__. 5 Feb. 2009. [].

2. Nasa. "Callisto". Online Photo. __Nasa-Jupiter__. 5 Feb. 2009. [].

3. "Jupiter's Auroras". Online Photo __Planet Jupiter__. 21 Feb. 2009. [].

