The Solar System (Jupiter)

Rare Triple Solar Eclipse.
Moons are: Io, Ganymede,
and Callisto (Io-white dot,
Ganymede-blue dot
Callisto-not visible, at upper right)
Credits: NASA/Hubble

Large Jovian storm at the
Northern Hemisphere.
Credits: NASA/Juno

 

Jupiter captured
in Infrared.

Credits:
NASA's Infrared
Telescope Facility

   The king of all planets, Jupiter, is first and largest planet in the solar system. Fifth farthest from the Sun, this planet could fit more than one thousand Earths, and with all of the other planets' masses combined, Jupiter is still twice as large! From its size and atmosphere, Jupiter is considered as a "failed" star, with its size 80 times smaller than a typical star. Probably the most famous fact about Jupiter, is that the famous astronomer, Galileo found this planet in 1610, and four of its moons, Io, Ganymede, Europa, and Callisto, as well as the great storm that roams the equator of the planet, known as the Great Red Spot.

Jupiter, Upside-down, with
two of its moons.
Credits: NASA/Damian Peach

       As you look through space, one of the claims you probably would say is that the universe is quite empty. However, this is not true, and because of this, it is how stars and planets form. Space is filled with rocks and gases, and 4.6 billion years ago, a huge amount of rocks and gases were pressed together by flying materials from dying/dead stars. This caused the particles to form high gravity which pulled the rocks and dusts closer and faster in a swirling position. Forces from the other stars caused the swirling gases and rocks to swirl faster and faster, and eventually the particles implodes itself, and this energy caused the particles to stick together. Meanwhile, most of this energy is converted to heat (for energy transfers to another, no energy is created or destroyed). This heat and mass, in a few million years, would cause the sun to be how it is today. When the sun was formed, it still had a lot of particles left. Most of these particles, mostly hydrogen and helium would come to form Jupiter. Jupiter is known as a failed star, probably because of its delay of its growth. Jupiter has the primary ingredients for a star, its atmosphere is similar to the sun, it contains lots of gases, primarily hydrogen. It delay of its growth caused it to lose more of the leftovers from the creation of the sun, as other planets like Saturn began to form. In fact, if Jupiter was 80 times bigger than it is, it would have enough mass and energy to smash hydrogen atoms together!

Closest shot of Jupiter from
Voyager 1 on March 5, 1979.
Credits: NASA

        During the time of Jupiter's youth, Jupiter moved across the solar system, almost crashing into the sun. This movement of Jupiter's probably meant the greatest to life on Earth, the asteroid belt, Mars, Ceres, and Vesta! Known as the Grand Tack theory, the gas giant has moved inward towards the sun, but luckily was saved by Saturn and was pulled back to its present spot today. Meanwhile, this movement from Jupiter, separated space rocks from each other, created comets, formation of water on Earth, small size of Mars, and the asteroid belt! Jupiter's great mass moved things in and out meaning that it probably separated icy rocks from the rocky ones, and tossing lighter materials away from the sun, causing the formation of Neptune and Uranus. On the other hand, it gave Mars its small size by removing the rocks could have been part of Mars. The rocks part of the asteroid belt is caused from Jupiter, and sometimes these asteroids would crash into Earth, primarily, the reason why Earth has so much water.

Jupiter's South Pole
Credits: NASA/Juno Probe

        In 1610, Europe's society was closely to religion, and anyone who tries to be blasphemous, who be executed or thrown in jail. Many Europeans believed that Earth is in the middle of the solar system, and they would not except any other objections/corrections. Copernicus, was the first to explain that the sun was in the middle of the solar system, and got penalty for that. A few years later, Galileo avenges Copernicus, when he took an observation at Jupiter and its moons. In return, the European society burned Galileo's books, and arrested him. However, Galileo believed in himself and held his belief when he died. Now we can all prove that Galileo is right, especially with Newton's law of gravity and motion (not going to jump into that.)

Storm Oval BA.
(Recognize the
Great Red Spot)

Credits: NASA/
Juno Probe

        From observations, and pictures sent back from the Galileo, Juno, the Voyagers, the Pioneers, and Cassini probes, (there's a few more), scientists were amazed and awed at the beauty at the planet. It bands of gases, the Pearls, the Great Red Spot, and the auroras gives Jupiter its unique features. These bands are made mostly of Hydrogen, with traces of helium, ammonia, methane, and water vapor. Pressure and temperature varies among the atmosphere, thus the air is separated and there's the bands. The red and white colored bands of gases observed from Earth is caused by ammonia, water vapor, and ammonium hydro sulfide. Under these bands of gases, there are layers of gas, in which the pressure gets at an immense level that the atoms of the gases are compressed to liquid or solid.

The Great Red Spot.
Credits: NASA/Juno/Kevin Gill

          Formally discovered in 1830, the Great Red Spot is a giant storm that has been raging near the southern half of the equator. (The Great Red Spot could have been observed earlier, in the 1600's, but scientists aren't sure if the 'Spot' they saw was the Great Red Spot, or something else.) The Great Red Spot has been roaming the planet, however, its size has been decreasing. Since it was discovered, it was 4 times larger than Earth. When Voyager 2 flew past Jupiter in July 7, 1979, it shrunk to twice the size of Earth, and from pictures sent from Juno recently, the Red Spot has shrunk to 1.3 the size of Earth. Although it has shrunk, it is the solar system's largest and biggest storm. It remains this way because of the air composition, and the way the bands move across the planet, gives this storm a hard backing.

Jupiter and Ganymede.
(The two white 'spots'
are part of the Pearls)
Credits: NASA/Hubble

         From pictures sent from Hubble, or Juno, you may have observed that under the Great Red Spot, there lies several white spots. These white spots are known as the Pearls. Just like the Great Red Spot though, they are storms that roam the Southern part of the planet, rotating counterclockwise these Pearls decorate the king of planets. Discovered in 1980's the White Pearls ranged from 6-9, with 8 Pearls visible (at the time of 2016). Since they are storms, they do die out, but new ones form, all because of the perfect conditions that are present on Jupiter's atmosphere.

South Pole Aurora in Infrared.
Credits: NASA/Juno

         Jupiter, like Earth has a giant magnetic field that protects it from the solar particles that are emitted from the sun. With this layer of protection, it creates a beautiful show on the south and north poles of the planet. This beautiful light show is known as an aurora. However, Jupiter's aurora doesn't work the way Earth's aurorae work. The aurorae on Earth mirrors each other--North and South. On Jupiter, the aurorae of the North and the South does not reflect each other, and appear at different times. The aurorae also doesn't have to be fueled by the sun. One of the Jovian moons--Io, steams out lots of materials at about a pace of 1 ton per second. From these particles, it may interact with Jupiter's strong magnetic field, thus giving it 'artificial' aurorae.

Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9
Credits: NASA

         In the early 1990's the world got to catch a spectacular event. A comet in pieces smashing into Jupiter. Discovered in 1993, by Carolyn Shoemaker, Eugene Shoemaker, and David Levy. At the time of the discovery, the comet was already broken to 20 pieces, and was orbiting the mass planet. From mathematical calculations, it was found that the comet was caught in the giant gravity of Jupiter's, and from this immense pull, the comet broke up to several pieces. More surprisingly, the comet was due to crash into Jupiter in the following year. This hyped up scientists, and the general public greatly. If it was true, then it means that people would get to view a collision between two bodies in the solar system for the first time. As best as it could get, the comet did slam into Jupiter---from July 16, 1994 to July 22, 1994. The collision was observed by Voyager 2, Hubble Space Telescope, Galileo (space probe), and many curious people. The impact made many black scars through the atmosphere of Jupiter, heating areas up to 30,000-40,000 Celsius, exploded in equivalence of 300 million atomic bombs, and helped scientists measure the speed of the gases near the edge of Jupiter's atmosphere. Data still show that this impact has effect on the planet. Jupiter's rings still have some alterations, and water from the comet is still detectable in the atmosphere.

Scars left from the Shoemaker-Levy 9 Comet.
Credits: NASA

         So no matter what, Jupiter is a fascinating place to explore, with its bands, the Great Red Spot, the Pearls, and the great Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 collision.

(But of course, Earth is still the best place to live)

Best color picture of Jupiter.
(You can see the bands,
Great Red Spot, the Pearls)
Credits: NASA/Cassini

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