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Jupiter

Jupiter is the fifth and largest planet of our Solar System. It completes an orbit around the Sun in twelve years, while it turns around itself in just 10 hours, giving it a special flattened shape as if someone has compressed it at the poles.

It has a small solid core of ice and other heavy elements surrounded by a large amount of metallic hydrogen which is also responsible for the planet's strong bipolar magnetic field. Outside the core there is an area which starts with liquid hydrogen and then with gas hydrogen.

Jupiter has also clouds which are 50 kilometers thick with different colors because of different elements and compounds that react to Sun's ultraviolet light. Because of its rapid rotation, the clouds of its atmosphere have formed zones where storms occur, due to upward currents. The largest storm is three times the size of Earth and it is known as the Great Red Spot of Jupiter.

Its temperature depends on depth and where the pressure is ten times that of the Earth, the temperature is 67°C. The reason for this temperature, apart from the pressure, is that Jupiter emits twice the radiation it receives from the Sun as a whole. Jupiter is also accompanied by many satellites, some of them are Io, Europe, Ganymede and Callisto. It also has a very thin ring which is not easily visible.

 

 

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