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Jupiter is a whirling ball of liquid hydrogen. Its atmosphere is mostly
hydrogen (90%) and helium (10%). Underneath the atmosphere is a huge ocean
of liquid hydrogen tens of thousands of miles deep.
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Jupiter reflects more heat than it receives from the Sun. Astronomers
think that it may have a heat source of its own.
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Jupiter has a huge magnetic field and may have a rocky center core.
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Jupiter has some rings. They are dark, dusty and diffuse. One is a very
thin, dark ring of pebbles, dust and boulders. Another ring is shaped like
a doughnut and is composed of extremely hot gas.
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Clouds of red, brown, blue, yellow, orange and white blow very quickly
around the planet, and collide with each other. The winds go more than
400 miles per hour. Many giant storms, hurricanes and tornados rage over
its surface. Huge streaks of lightning, 10,000 times more powerful than
we see on Earth light up the planet.
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Jupiter is known for its "Great Red Spot" which is a tremendous atmospheric
storm, rotating counter-clockwise, similar to a really bad hurricane on
Earth. This storm has lasted over 300 years! The winds travel up to 800
mph, faster than sound.
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It is the largest planet in our solar system, with more mass than all
the other planets combined. In fact, if you put all the planets inside
it, they would take up less than half the space!
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If Jupiter had been just a fraction bigger than it is, it would have
turned into a star and our solar system would have had two Suns instead
of one.
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It takes Jupiter 12 Earth years to travel around the sun.
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With a good telescope you can see bands, called belts, separated by
lighter areas, called zones.
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It has 17 known moons. Ganymede is the largest moon in our solar system,
larger than the planet Mercury and Pluto. It has its own magnetic field.
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One of its moons, Europa, has frozen water on its surface, and might
be able to support life.
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One of its moons, Io, is covered with erupting volcanos, the most in
our solar system. Astronomers have said it looks like a pizza! Io's beautiful
colors come from the chemical sulfur. It is one of only a few moons
in our solar system that has its own magnetic field.
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