Why Mercury is not the hottest planet
Apart from the Sun, which star is the largest and most massive planet in our solar system? It may not be obvious, but Jupiter is the king of the planets in the night sky. Mercury is not the hottest planet
Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system
Largest Planet 300×300 – Which is the largest planet and which is the smallest planet in the Solar System? Jupiter is the largest of the eight planets orbiting the Sun.
Its diameter is about 139,822 km, which is eleven times the size of Earth. In terms of volume, this gas giant can hold 1,300 times that of our planet. However, it is less than our Sun, which can be filled with 1.3 million Earths! (However, the Sun does not fall into the category of planets because it is a star).
The mass of Jupiter is about 318 times that of our rocky planet. Taken by itself, it has 2.5 times the combined mass of all the planets, which is nothing compared to the Sun, which makes up 99.8% of the total mass of the Solar System!
The gas giant is the fifth farthest planet from the Sun. It is on average 778 million km away from it, which is 5.2 times the distance of the Sun from Earth (or 5.2 astronomical units).
It takes about 43 minutes for sunlight to reach it. One year on Jupiter, that is, its orbital period, lasts 4,333 Earth days (12 years). It spins on its own in just ten hours.
Jupiter, the first planet to form around the Sun
Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system. It was also the first planet to form around the Sun when it was very young 4.6 billion years ago.
Jupiter’s most famous feature is the Great Red Spot, a high-pressure system known for many centuries and currently the size of Earth (it was 2.5 times the size of Earth in the past).
The name Jupiter (jus pater) is a legacy of the Romans, who in turn borrowed it from the Greeks, who used the name Zeus; In both cases these words refer to daylight.
These civilizations did not know the dimensions of this planet, but they named it the king of the gods. Perhaps because between Mars and Saturn, he is the mediator through the heavenly machinery in his conception of the universe.
Jupiter and the Galilean Moon
Astronomers now know of 67 moons of the planet Jupiter. The four largest of them are called the Galilean moons because they were discovered by the famous Italian astronomer Galileo in the early 17th century. In order of their proximity to Jupiter, they are:
- Europe
- Ganymede
- Callisto.
Europe is the size of our Moon and has a potentially habitable ocean of liquid water beneath its icy surface (much larger than Earth’s).
Mercury, the smallest planet in the solar system
The smallest planet in the Solar System is Mercury, which is also the closest planet to the Sun.
About The Author
