BellaOnline Forums Education Astronomy Jupiter the Giant Planet *new article*

Almost everything about Jupiter is a superlative. The Solar System's biggest planet also has the most moons, and its magnetic influence extends well over a million miles into space. It's appropriately named for the mighty king of the classical Roman gods.

Jupiter the Giant Planet

A little infographic that looks inside Jupiter.

Credit: Ross Toro Space.com
Image: © Karl Tate, SPACE.com

In 1994 Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 got close enough to Jupiter for Jupiter's strong gravity to pull it apart. The fragments hit the planet, their impacts captured by the Hubble Space Telescope.

Credit: R. Evans/J. Trauger/H. Hammel/HST Comet Science Team/NASA

At high latitudes Earth has auroras - northern and southern lights. And Jupiter also has auroras. The image is a composite of two Hubble observations. One gives us Jupiter's full-color disk in visible light. However the auroras are so powerful that they show up in ultraviolet light, so were photographed by a different instrument sensitive to far-ultraviolet light.

Credits: NASA, ESA, and J. Nichols (University of Leicester)