Diameter

Jupiter is 142,984 km in diameter and here it is 14.3 cm, a little smaller than a handball.

Duration of the day

On Jupiter the day would fly by. It only lasts for 9 hours 55 minutes.

Year duration

Years would pass us slowly, instead. One Jovian year equals 11.9 Earth years.

Distance to the sun

The giant is 5 times farther from the Sun than we are, at 778.5 million km. At 778.5 meters from the Sun in this model represented at Garraf.

Satellites

Currently 79 satellites are known, although the best known are the four discovered by Galileo: Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. The third one is larger than the planet Mercury.

Composition

It is a huge sphere of gas, mostly hydrogen and helium. The clouds that form the alternately light and dark belts contain water, ammonia, and ammonium disulfide with traces of phosphorus, sulfur, and hydrocarbons.

Surface temperature

At the level of the atmosphere equivalent to the pressure of a terrestrial atmosphere, the temperature is 108 °C below zero. Inside, they will surely reach 50,000 ° C.

Gravity

At this giant we would notice a weight 2.52 times higher than what we notice at home.

Density

It is slightly denser than water: 1.3 g / cm³. The same density of wool!

Did you know...

… That since Jupiter is a gaseous planet, does the rotation speed vary at different latitudes? This is called differential rotation, and it is common to all gaseous planets and "normal" stars.

… That In the sky Jupiter is a very bright point that shines thanks to the light that comes from the Sun? You can calculate how intense the sunlight reaches it, keeping in mind that it decreases with the square of the distance. If Jupiter is about 5 times farther from the Sun than we are, what is the fraction of light and heat that reaches it compared to what we receive on Earth? How come it’s still so bright?

… That being made of gas, giant planets are very deformable? This fact, combined with their rapid rotation, makes them look very flattened. In the case of Jupiter, the polar diameter is almost 10,000 km smaller than the equatorial diameter.