Exploring Jupiter

© Vladimir Kalanov,
website "Knowledge is power".

Jupiter's atmosphere

BKP and white oval

Equatorial zone

Jupiter's atmosphere is composed primarily of molecular hydrogen (76.1% by mass) and helium (23.8% by mass). Methane (0.21%), ammonia, inert gases, and water ice crystals are present in small amounts. Strong winds constantly blow on the surface of Jupiter. On Earth, winds with a speed of 150 m / s, we would call hurricane, but for Jupiter, such winds are normal. It was found that in the northern hemisphere of Jupiter, atmospheric wind streams reach 600 km / h (this is 166 m / s).

There is no clear boundary between the surface and the atmosphere on Jupiter, as well as on other gaseous planets. To determine such a boundary, astronomers introduced the concept of a conditional "zero height", at which the temperature gradient changes to the opposite, ie. the temperature starts to count down. Jupiter's atmosphere has not yet been sufficiently studied to accurately determine zero altitude. The pressure level of 1 nbar is taken as the upper boundary of the planet's atmosphere. When measuring physical properties atmosphere, the Galileo probe used a reference point with a pressure of 1 atmosphere.

According to the Galileo probe, the wind speed first increases with depth, and then becomes constant. At a pressure level of 0.5 atm. wind speed was 90 m / s, reached 170 m / s at 4 atm. and then hardly changed.

Speed \u200b\u200b/ direction of zonal winds on Jupiter depending on latitude

In the equatorial region of Jupiter, the winds blow in the forward direction, i.e. in the direction of rotation of the planet, at a speed of approx. 70-140 m / sec. But already at 15-18 degrees north and south latitudes, the direction of gas flows reverses, where it reaches a speed of 50-60 m / s. Subsequently, the atmospheric currents of the forward and reverse directions change each other several times, and the wind speed in them decreases with increasing latitude. In the polar latitudes, the zonal wind speed is close to zero.

It has been established that there are three cloud layers in the Jupiter atmosphere. Above there are clouds of frozen ammonia, below - crystals of ammonium hydrogen sulfide and methane, and in the lowest layer - water ice and, possibly, liquid water.

Jupiter's atmosphere is highly electrically active. Thunderstorms thunder there continuously. Lightning strikes reach lengths of 1000 km and even more. Lightning 50 km long in the Earth's atmosphere are very rare.

Lightning flashes in the atmosphere of Jupiter. A shot of the night side of the planet.

According to modern concepts, the outer layer of Jupiter is 0.15 of the planet's radius, i.e. about 10,000 km of gas (a mixture of hydrogen and helium). Behind this layer is a layer of liquid molecular hydrogen (a mixture of liquid hydrogen and helium). The thickness of this layer is about 0.75 of the planet's radius, i.e. about 54 thousand km. the temperature of liquid hydrogen in this layer reaches 2000 ° C. Further, at a depth of up to 0.9 of the planet's radius (about 65 thousand km), hydrogen is in a solid metallic state with a density of 11 (g / cm³) and a temperature of 20,000 ° C. The pressure in this zone reaches 5 million Earth atmospheres.

Jupiter's core is a solid formation of iron silicate and rocky rocks. The radius of the core can range from 0.1 to 0.15 of the planet's radius, and its mass is about 4% of the total mass of Jupiter.

Metallic hydrogen is understood as its state of aggregation when, under a pressure of several million earthly atmospheres, the electrons of hydrogen atoms lose their bond with protons and freely move inside the surrounding substance. Electrons in metals behave in a similar way.

Located at a huge distance from the Sun, Jupiter receives 27 times less solar heat than the Earth. Measurements made from Earth and automatic probes have shown that the infrared energy of Jupiter is about 1.5 times the thermal energy received by the planet from the distant Sun. This means that Jupiter has internal reserves of heat. It is believed that these reserves of thermal energy are residual since the formation of the planet. It makes no sense to guess what values \u200b\u200bthe temperature in the interior of Jupiter can reach, although some authors call a possible level from 23,000 ° C to 100,000 ° C.

The surface of Jupiter warms up poorly due to the low thermal conductivity of the substances that make up the inner layers of the planet. Therefore, a terrible cold reigns on the surface of Jupiter - up to minus 150 ° C. At the same time, the effect of the internal source of heat on Jupiter is manifested in the fact that cyclones and anticyclones are constantly raging in its atmosphere, strong winds constantly blow from west to east, then from east to west. For similar manifestations the atmospheric activity of the thermal energy received by Jupiter from the Sun would be completely insufficient. This is confirmed by meteorological calculations.

Jupiter's magnetic field

Until 1979, scientists had no data on the presence or absence of magnetic field near Jupiter. From scientific information received in March 1979 from an automatic interplanetary station Voyager 1 , and later from AMC "Odysseus" , it became clear that Jupiter has the strongest magnetic field. According to some estimates, the strength of the magnetic field on Jupiter is almost 50 times higher than on Earth. The magnetic axis is tilted by 10.2 ± 0.6 ° with respect to the axis of rotation of Jupiter. Jupiter's magnetic poles are inverted in relation to the planet's poles. Therefore, the arrow of the compass on Jupiter would point to the south with its northern end. It is assumed that the magnetic field on Jupiter generates a highly conductive electric current, metallic hydrogen due to the planet's rapid rotation.

The audacity of this assumption is that no one on earth has ever seen metallic hydrogen and, accordingly, no one studied the properties of this, in general, hypothetical, substance. But in this case, the fantasy of scientists coincides with reality: after all, the magnetic field of Jupiter really exists.

Jupiter's magnetic field extends over a huge distance from the planet, at least one hundred Jupiter radii, i.e. reaches Saturn. If the magnetosphere of Jupiter could be seen from the surface of the Earth, then its angular dimensions would exceed the dimensions full moonvisible from Earth.

Jupiter's magnetic field creates powerful radiation belts around the planet, i.e. areas filled with charged particles. Radiation belts of Jupiter in terms of radiation intensity are 40 thousand times higher than the radiation belts of the Earth.

Jupiter's magnetosphere model

The presence of charged particles in Jupiter's magnetosphere is the cause of the auroras that arise in the atmosphere of high latitudes of both hemispheres of the planet. The auroras on Jupiter are very intense and can be observed even from Earth.

At the same time, the presence of a plasma ring was established around Jupiter; zones where charged particles are absent. The existence of plasma is explained by the possible ionization under the influence of solar radiation of volcanic emissions acting on the satellite Io.

The rings of Jupiter

In 1979 probes Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 opened the rings surrounding Jupiter. The system of these rings consists of two outer rings and one inner ring. The rings are located in the equatorial plane of Jupiter and are located at a distance of 55,000 km from the upper atmosphere. Rings are small rocky fragments, dust, and pieces of ice that revolve around the planet. The reflectivity of the bulk of the material of the rings is low, therefore it is extremely difficult to notice the rings from the Earth. This is the difference between the rings of Jupiter and the rings of another gaseous giant - Saturn, which reflect sunlight well and are accessible to observation. The brightest and most noticeable part of Jupiter's rings is about 6400 km wide (more precisely, deep) and up to 30 km thick. From the point of view of celestial mechanics, Jupiter's rings are hundreds of thousands of small and tiny satellites orbiting this planet. But astronomical science, of course, does not consider small pieces of stone, pieces of ice and other space debris that revolve around each planet as satellites.

© Vladimir Kalanov,
"Knowledge is power"

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Jupiter is the most large planet Solar system... It is located in the fifth orbit from the Sun.
Belongs to the category gas giants and fully justifies the correctness of such a classification.

Jupiter got its name in honor of the ancient supreme god of thunder. Probably due to the fact that the planet was known for a long time and was sometimes found in mythology.

Weight and size.
If you compare the sizes of Jupiter and Earth, you can understand how much they differ. Jupiter is more than 11 times the radius of our planet.
Moreover, the mass of Jupiter is 318 times greater than the mass of the Earth! And this also affects the small density of the giant (it is almost 5 times inferior to that of the Earth).

Structure and composition.
The core of the planet, interestingly enough, is stone. Its diameter is about 20 thousand kilometers.
This is followed by a layer of metallic hydrogen, which has twice the diameter of the core. The temperature of this layer ranges from 6 to 20 thousand degrees.
The next layer is a substance of hydrogen, helium, ammonia, water and others. Its thickness is also about 20 thousand kilometers. Interestingly, at the surface, this layer has a gaseous form, but then gradually turns into a liquid.
Well, the last, outer layer, consists, for the most part, of hydrogen. There is also some helium and a little less other elements. This layer is gaseous.

Orbit and rotation.
Jupiter's orbital speed is not very high. The planet makes a complete revolution around the central star in almost 12 years.
But the speed of rotation around its axis, on the contrary, is high. And even more - the highest among all the planets of the system. The turnaround takes just under 10 hours.

Information about the planet Jupiter

Atmosphere.
Jupiter's atmosphere is about 89% hydrogen and 8-10% helium. The remaining crumbs are methane, ammonium, water and more.
When viewed from afar, the stripes of Jupiter are clearly visible - layers of the atmosphere, different in composition, temperature and pressure. They even have different colors - some are lighter, others are darker. Sometimes they move around the planet in different directions and almost always at different speeds, which is quite beautiful.

In the atmosphere of Jupiter, pronounced phenomena occur: lightning, storms and others. They are much larger than on our planet.

Temperature.
Despite the remoteness from the Sun, temperatures on the planet are very high.
In the atmosphere - from about -110 ° C to +1000 ° C. Well, as the distance to the center of the planet decreases, the temperature also increases.
But this does not happen evenly. Especially for its atmosphere - the change in temperature in different layers of it occurs in a rather unexpected way. So far, it has not been possible to explain all such changes.

- Due to the rapid rotation around its axis, Jupiter is slightly elongated in height. So, its equatorial radius exceeds the polar one by almost 5 thousand kilometers (71.5 thousand km and 66.8 thousand km, respectively).

- The diameter of Jupiter is as close as possible to the limit for planets of this type of structure. With the theoretical further increase of the planet, it would begin to shrink, while its diameter would remain almost unchanged. The way it still has.
Such a contraction would lead to the emergence of a new Star.

- In the atmosphere of Jupiter is a giant incessant hurricane - the so-called Jupiter's red spot (due to its color when observed). The size of this spot exceeds several diameters of the Earth! 15 by 30 thousand kilometers - approximately these are its dimensions (and it has also decreased by 2 times over the past 100 years).

- The planet has 3 very thin and inconspicuous rings.

- It rains diamonds on Jupiter.

- Jupiter has the largest number of satellites among all the planets of the solar system - 67.
One of these satellites, Europe, has a global ocean that reaches a depth of 90 kilometers. The volume of water in this ocean is greater than the volume of the Earth's oceans (although the satellite is noticeably smaller than the Earth). Perhaps there are living organisms in this ocean.

Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. This is a giant planet. Jupiter's equatorial diameter is almost 11 times that of Earth. Jupiter's mass is 318 times the mass of Earth.

The planet Jupiter has been known to people since ancient times: like Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn, it can be seen in the night sky with the naked eye. When at the end of the 16th century the first imperfect telescopes began to spread in Europe, the Italian scientist Galileo Galilei decided to make such a device for himself. He guessed to use it for the benefit of astronomy. In 1610, Galileo saw through a telescope tiny "stars" orbiting Jupiter. These four satellites discovered by Galileo (Galilean satellites) were named Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto.

The ancient Romans identified many of their gods with the Greeks. Jupiter - the supreme Roman god is identical to the supreme god of Olympus - Zeus. The moons of Jupiter were given the names of characters from the environment of Zeus. Io is one of his many lovers. Europa is a beautiful Phoenician woman whom Zeus kidnapped, transforming into a mighty bull. Ganymede is a handsome young butler who serves Zeus. The nymph Callisto, out of jealousy of Zeus's wife, Hera, turned into a bear. Zeus placed her in the sky in the form of the constellation Ursa Major.

For almost three centuries, only the Galilean satellites remained known to science as satellites of Jupiter. In 1892, the fifth moon of Jupiter, Amalthea, was discovered. Amalthea is a divine goat who fed Zeus with her milk when his mother was forced to shelter her newborn son from the unbridled anger of his father, the god Kronos. The Horn of Amalthea has become a fairy cornucopia. After Amalthea, discoveries of Jupiter's satellites poured out like a horn of plenty. Currently, 63 of Jupiter's moons are known.

Jupiter and its satellites are studied by scientists not only from Earth using modern scientific methods, but have also been examined from a closer distance using spacecraft. American interplanetary automatic station Pioneer 10 first came to a relatively close distance to Jupiter in 1973, Pioneer 11 a year later. In 1979, the American spacecraft Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 approached Jupiter. In 2000, the automatic interplanetary station "Cassini" passed Jupiter, transmitting photographs and unique information about the planet and its satellites to Earth. From 1995 to 2003, the Galileo spacecraft operated within the Jupiter system, whose mission was to study Jupiter and its satellites in detail. Spacecraft not only helped to collect a large amount of information about Jupiter and its many moons, but also to detect a ring around Jupiter, consisting of small solid particles.

The entire swarm of satellites of Jupiter can be divided into two groups. One of them is internal (located closer to Jupiter), which includes four Galilean moons and Amalthea. All of them, except for the relatively small Amalthea, are large cosmic bodies. The diameter of the smallest of the Galilean satellites, Europa, is approximately 0.9 times the diameter of our Moon. The diameter of the largest, Ganymede, is 1.5 times the diameter of the Moon. All these satellites move in their almost circular orbits in the plane of Jupiter's equator in the direction of the planet's rotation. Like our Moon, the Galilean satellites of Jupiter are always turned to their planet by the same side: the time of revolution of each satellite around its axis and around the planet is the same. Most scientists believe that these five moons of Jupiter formed along with their planet.

A huge number of Jupiter's outer satellites are small cosmic bodies. The outer satellites in their motion do not adhere to the plane of the Jupiter equator. Most of the outer satellites revolve around Jupiter in the opposite direction of the planet's rotation. Most likely, they are all "strangers" in the world of Jupiter. Perhaps they are fragments of large cosmic bodies colliding in the vicinity of Jupiter, or one progenitor that fell apart in a strong gravitational field.

At the present time, scientists have collected a large amount of information about the planet Jupiter and its satellites, spacecraft have transmitted to the earth a huge number of photographs taken from relatively close distances. But the real sensation that broke the previously existing ideas of scientists about the satellites of the planets was the fact that volcanic eruptions occur on Jupiter's moon Io. Small cosmic bodies during their existence cool down in outer space, in their depths there should not be a huge temperature necessary to maintain volcanic activity.

Io is not just a body that still retains some traces of the activity of the interior, but the most active volcanic body in the solar system, known at the present time. Volcanic eruptions on Io can be considered almost continuous. And in their strength they are many times superior to the eruptions of terrestrial volcanoes.

Jupiter characteristics

What gives "life" to a small cosmic body, which should have long ago turned into a dead block. Scientists believe that the planet's body is constantly warmed up due to friction in the rocks that form the satellite, under the influence of the enormous force of gravity of Jupiter and the forces of gravity from Europa and Ganymede. For each revolution, Io changes its orbit twice, shifting radially 10 km to and from Jupiter. Periodically contracting and unclenching, Io's body heats up in the same way as a bent wire heats up.

Get the kids interested in known facts and unrevealed secrets of Jupiter and members of his large family. The Internet provides an opportunity to satisfy interest on this topic.

4.14. Jupiter

4.14.1. physical characteristics

Jupiter (gas giant) is the fifth planet in the solar system.
Equatorial radius: 71492 ± 4 km, polar radius: 66854 ± 10 km.
Mass: 1.8986 × 10 27 kg or 317.8 Earth masses.
Average density: 1.326 g / cm³.
The spherical albedo of Jupiter is 0.54.

The flow of internal heat per unit area of \u200b\u200bthe "surface" of Jupiter is approximately equal to the flow received from the Sun. In this respect, Jupiter is closer to the stars than to the planets. terrestrial group... However, the source of Jupiter's internal energy is obviously not nuclear reactions. The energy stored during the gravitational contraction of the planet is emitted.

4.14.2. Orbital elements and features of motion

The average distance of Jupiter from the Sun is 778.55 million km (5.204 AU). The eccentricity of the orbit is e \u003d 0.04877. The period of revolution around the Sun is 11.859 years (4331.572 days); the average orbital speed is 13.07 km / s. The inclination of the orbit to the plane of the ecliptic is 1.305 °. Rotation axis tilt: 3.13 °. Since the equatorial plane of the planet is close to the plane of its orbit, there are no seasons on Jupiter.

Jupiter rotates faster than any other planet in the solar system, with the angular velocity of rotation decreasing from the equator to the poles. The rotation period is 9.925 hours. Due to its rapid rotation, the polar contraction of Jupiter is quite noticeable: the polar radius is less than the equatorial one by 6.5%.

Jupiter has the largest atmosphere among the planets of the solar system, which extends to a depth of more than 5000 km. Since Jupiter does not have a solid surface, the inner boundary of the atmosphere corresponds to a depth at which the pressure is 10 bar (that is, approximately 10 atm).

Jupiter's atmosphere is mainly composed of molecular hydrogen H 2 (about 90%) and helium He (about 10%). The atmosphere also contains simple molecular compounds: water, methane, hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, and phosphine, etc. Traces of the simplest hydrocarbons - ethane, benzene and other compounds - have also been found.

The atmosphere has a pronounced striped structure, consisting of light zones and dark zones, which are the result of the manifestation of convective flows that carry internal heat to the surface.

In the area of \u200b\u200blight zones, an increased pressure is observed, corresponding to upward currents. The clouds forming the zones are located on more high level, and their light color is probably explained by the increased concentration of ammonia NH 3 and ammonium hydrosulfide NH 4 HS.

The dark belt clouds below are believed to contain compounds of phosphorus and sulfur, as well as some of the simplest hydrocarbons. These, under normal conditions, colorless compounds acquire a dark color as a result of exposure to UV radiation from the Sun. The clouds in the dark zones have a higher temperature than the light zones and represent areas of downdrafts. Zones and belts have different speeds in the direction of Jupiter's rotation.

Jupiter in the IR range

At the boundaries of belts and zones where strong turbulence is observed, vortex structures appear, the most a prime example which is the Great Red Spot (BKP) - a giant cyclone in the atmosphere of Jupiter that has existed for over 350 years. Gas in the BKP rotates counterclockwise with a turnover period of about 6 Earth days. The wind speed inside the slick exceeds 500 km / h. The bright orange color of the spot is apparently related to the presence of sulfur and phosphorus in the atmosphere.

Jupiter is the most massive planet

The length of the BCP is about 30 thousand km in length, width - 13 thousand km (much more than the Earth). The size of the spot is constantly changing, and there is a tendency to its decrease, since 100 years ago the BCP was approximately 2 times larger. The spot moves parallel to the planet's equator.

4.14.4. Internal structure

The internal structure of Jupiter

At present, it is assumed that there is a solid core in the center of Jupiter, followed by a layer of liquid metallic hydrogen with a small admixture of helium, and an outer layer consisting mainly of molecular hydrogen. Despite the general, generally formed concept, it contains, nevertheless, many vague and unclear details.

To describe the core, the model of the rocky core of the planet is most often used, however, neither the properties of matter at extreme pressures and temperatures reached in the core (not less than 3000–4500 GPa and 36000 K), nor its detailed composition are known. The presence of a solid core with a mass of 12 to 45 Earth masses (or 3–15% of Jupiter's mass) follows from measurements of Jupiter's gravitational field. In addition, the solid (icy or rocky) embryo of proto-Jupiter for the subsequent accretion of light hydrogen and helium is a necessary element in modern models origin planetary systems (see section 4.6).

The core is surrounded by a layer of metallic hydrogen with an admixture of helium and neon condensed into drops. This shell extends for about 78% of the planet's radius. To achieve the state of liquid metallic hydrogen, it is necessary (according to estimates) a pressure of at least 200 GPa and a temperature of about 10,000 K.

Above the layer of metallic hydrogen lies a shell consisting of gas-liquid (in a supercritical state) hydrogen with an admixture of helium. The upper part of this shell smoothly passes into the outer layer - the atmosphere of Jupiter.

Within the framework of this simple three-layer model, there is no clear boundary between the main layers; however, the phase transition regions are also thin. Therefore, it can be assumed that almost all processes are localized, which allows us to consider each layer separately.

Jupiter has a powerful magnetic field. The field strength at the level of the visible surface of the clouds is 14 oersted at the north pole and 10.7 oersted at the south pole. The axis of the dipole is tilted to the axis of rotation by 10 °, and the polarity is the opposite of the polarity of the earth's magnetic field. The existence of a magnetic field is explained by the presence of metallic hydrogen in the interior of Jupiter, which, being a good conductor rotating at high speed, creates magnetic fields.

Jupiter is surrounded by a powerful magnetosphere, which on the daytime side extends to a distance of 50–100 planet radii, and on the night side it extends beyond the orbit of Saturn. If the magnetosphere of Jupiter could be seen from the surface of the Earth, then its angular dimensions would exceed the dimensions of the Moon.

Compared to the Earth's magnetosphere, the Jupiter magnetosphere has not only large dimensions and power, but also a slightly different shape, and also, along with the dipole, has pronounced quadrupole and octupole components. The shape of Jupiter's magnetosphere is due to two additional factors that are absent in the case of the Earth - the fast rotation of Jupiter and the presence of a close and powerful source of magnetospheric plasma - Jupiter's satellite Io.

Jupiter in the radio range

Due to its volcanic activity, Io, located at a distance of only about 4.9R J from the planet's upper layer, supplies up to 1 ton of neutral gas, rich in sulfur, sulfur dioxide, oxygen, sodium, to the Jupiter magnetosphere every second. This gas is partially ionized and forms a plasma torus near Io's orbit.

As a result of the combined action of fast rotation and intramagnetospheric plasma formation, an additional source of magnetic field is created - the magnetodisk of Jupiter. Plasma is concentrated in the core of the magnetosphere in the low-latitude region, forming a magnetodisk - a thin current sheet, in which the magnitude of the azimuthal current decreases in proportion to the distance from the planet. The total current in the magnetodisk reaches about 100 million amperes.

Electrons moving in radiation belts Jupiter, are a source of powerful incoherent synchrotron radiation of the magnetosphere in the radio range.

4.14.6. General characteristics of satellites and rings of Jupiter

Jupiter is currently known to have 63 natural satellites and a ring system. All satellites fall into two categories: regular and irregular.

Eight regular satellites revolve around Jupiter in the direction of its rotation in almost circular orbits. Regular satellites, in turn, are divided into internal (satellites of the Amalthea group) and main (or Galilean) satellites.

Shepherd companions. The four inner moons of Jupiter - Metis (dimensions 60 × 40 × 34 km), Adrastea (20 × 16 × 14 km), Amalthea (250 × 146 × 128 km) and Teba (116 × 98 × 84 km) - have an irregular shape and play the role of the so-called. shepherd moons keeping Jupiter's rings from decay.

Jupiter's rings. Jupiter has faint rings that are 55,000 km above the atmosphere. There are two main rings and one very thin inner ring with a characteristic orange color. The main part of the rings has a radius of 123-129 thousand km. The rings are about 30 km thick. The rings are almost always facing the terrestrial observer, which is why they remained unnoticed for a long time. The rings themselves are composed mainly of dust and small stone particles that do not reflect the sun's rays well, and therefore are difficult to distinguish.

Galilean satellites. Jupiter's four Galilean moons (Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto) are some of the largest moons in the solar system. The total mass of the Galilean satellites is 99.999% of all objects orbiting Jupiter (for more details on the Galilean satellites, see below in Section 4.14.7).

Irregular satellites. It is customary to call such satellites irregular if their orbits have large eccentricities; either satellites orbiting in the opposite direction; or satellites whose orbits are characterized by large tilts to the equatorial plane. Irregular satellites are, apparently, asteroids captured from among the "Trojans" or "Greeks."

Irregular moons that revolve around Jupiter in the direction of its rotation:
Themisto (does not form a family);
group of Himalia (Leda, Himalia, Lysitia, Elara, S / 2000 J 11);
Karpo (does not form a family).

Irregular satellites that orbit Jupiter in the opposite direction:
S / 2003 J 12 (does not form a family);
Karme group (13 satellites);
Ananke group (16 satellites);
the Pasiphae group (17 satellites);
S / 2003 J 2 (does not form a family).

4.14.7. Galilean moons: Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto

Galilean satellites of Jupiter (Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto) were discovered by Galileo Galilei (after whom they were named) on January 8, 1610

Galilean satellites rotate synchronously and always face Jupiter with the same side (i.e., they are in spin-orbital resonance 1: 1) due to the influence of powerful tidal forces of the giant planet. In addition, Io, Europa, and Ganymede are in orbital resonance - their orbital periods are 1: 2: 4. The stability of the orbital resonances of the Galilean satellites has been observed since the moment of discovery, i.e., over 400 earth years and more than 20 thousand "satellite" (Ganymede) years (the period of revolution of Ganymede is 7,155 Earth days).

And about (average diameter - 3640 km, mass - 8.93 × 10 22 kg or 0.015 Earth masses, average density - 3.528 g / cm 3) is closer than other Galilean satellites to Jupiter (on average, at a distance of 4.9RJ from its surface) than , apparently, and due to its volcanic activity - the highest in the solar system. More than 10 volcanoes can erupt on Io's surface at the same time. As a result, Io's topography changes completely over several hundred years. The largest eruptions of Ionic volcanoes eject matter at a speed of 1 km / s to an altitude of 300 km. Like terrestrial volcanoes, volcanoes on Io emit sulfur and sulfur dioxide. Impact craters on Io are virtually non-existent as they are destroyed by constant eruptions and lava flows. In addition to volcanoes, Io has non-volcanic mountains, lakes of molten sulfur, and viscous lava flows hundreds of kilometers long. Unlike other Galilean moons, Io has no water or ice.

Europe (diameter - 3122 km, mass - 4.80 × 10 22 kg or 0.008 mass of the Earth, average density - 3.01 g / cm 3) is on average 8.4R J from the surface of Jupiter. Europa is completely covered with a layer of water supposedly about 100 km thick (partly in the form of ice surface crust 10-30 km thick; partly, as it is believed, in the form of a subsurface liquid ocean). Further, rocks lie, and in the center there is supposedly a small metal core. The depth of the ocean is up to 90 km, and its volume exceeds the volume of the Earth's oceans. The heat needed to keep it in liquid state, presumably generated by tidal interactions (in particular, tides raise the satellite's surface to a height of up to 30 meters). The surface of Europe is very flat, only a few formations resembling hills are several hundred meters high. The high albedo (0.67) of the satellite indicates that the surface ice is fairly clean. The number of craters is small, there are only three craters with a diameter of more than 5 km.

Jupiter's strong magnetic field causes electric currents in Europa's salty ocean, which form its unusual magnetic field.

The magnetic poles are located near the satellite's equator and are constantly shifting. Changes in field strength and orientation correlate with Europa's passage through Jupiter's magnetic field. It is assumed that life may exist in Europa's ocean.

On the surface of Ganymede, there are mainly two types of regions: very old, highly cratered dark regions and "younger" (but also ancient) light regions marked by extended rows of ridges and notches. The origin of the light regions is obviously associated with tectonic processes. Numerous impact craters are found on both types of Ganymede's surface, which indicates their antiquity - up to 3–3.5 billion years (similar to the lunar surface).

Callisto (diameter - 4821 km, mass - 1.08 × 10 23 kg or 0.018 mass of the Earth, average density - 1.83 g / cm 3) is located on average at a distance of 25.3R J from the surface of Jupiter. Callisto is one of the most cratered bodies in the solar system. Consequently, the satellite's surface is very old (about 4 billion years), and its geological activity is extremely low. Callisto has the lowest density of all the Galilean satellites (there is a tendency: the farther the satellite is from Jupiter, the lower its density) and is probably 60% ice and water and 40% rocks and iron. It is assumed that Callisto is covered with a 200 km thick ice crust, under which there is a layer of water about 10 km thick. The deeper layers seem to consist of compressed rocks and ice, with a gradual increase in rocks and iron toward the center.

Additional literature:

T. Owen, S. Atreya, H. Niemann. "Sudden guess": the first results of sounding the atmosphere of Titan spacecraft Huygens

Basic data

An object	radius orbits, million km Planet Jupiter short description	orbital circulation period	radius, thousand km	weight, kg	circulation period around its axis, days	free fall acceleration, g	surface temperature, K
The sun	—	—	695	2*10^30	24,6
Mercury	58	88 days	2,4	3,3*10^23	58,6	0,38	440
Venus	108	225 days	6,1	4,9*10^24	243 (sample)	0,91	730
Land	150	365 days	6,4	6*10^24	1	1	287
Mars	228	687 days	3,4	6,4*10^23	1,03	0,38	218
Jupiter	778	12 years	71	1,9*10^27	0,41	2,4	120
Saturn	1429	29 years	60	5,7*10^26	0,45	0,92	88
Uranus	2871	84 years	26	8,7*10^25	0.72 (sample)	0,89	59
Neptune	4504	165 years	25	1,0*10^26	0,67	1,1	48

The largest moons of the planets

An object	radius orbits, thousand km	orbital circulation period, days	radius, km	weight, kg	revolves around
Gunnimed	1070	7,2	2634	1,5*10^23	Jupiter
Titanium	1222	16	2575	1,4*10^23	Saturn
Callisto	1883	16,7	2403	1,1*10^23	Jupiter
And about	422	1,8	1821	8,9*10^22	Jupiter
Moon	384	27,3	1738	7,4*10^22	Earth
Europe	671	3,6	1565	4,8*10^22	Jupiter
Triton	355	5.9 (sample)	1353	2,2*10^22	Neptune

obr - rotates in the opposite direction to orbital motion

Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system, its diameter is 11 times the diameter of the Earth, and its mass is 318 times the mass of the Earth. Jupiter's path in orbit around the Sun takes 12 years, with the average distance to the Sun being 800 million km. Cloud belts in the atmosphere and the Great Red Spot make Jupiter a very picturesque planet.

Jupiter is not a solid planet. Unlike the four solid planets closest to the Sun, Jupiter is a huge ball of gas. There are three other gas giants that are even more distant from the Sun: Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. In their own way chemical composition these gas planets are very similar to the sun and are very different from the solid inner planets of the solar system. Jupiter's atmosphere, for example, is 85 percent hydrogen and about 14 percent helium. Although we cannot see any solid, rocky surface through Jupiter's clouds, deep inside the planet, hydrogen is under such pressure that it takes on some of the characteristics of a metal.

Jupiter rotates on its axis extremely quickly - it makes one revolution in 10 hours. The rotation speed is so high that the planet bulges along the equator. This rapid rotation is also the cause of very strong winds in the upper atmosphere, where the clouds are drawn in long colorful ribbons. Different parts of the atmosphere rotate at slightly different speeds, and it is this difference that gives rise to the cloud bands. The clouds above Jupiter are heterogeneous, stormy, therefore appearance cloud bands can change in just a few days. In addition, Jupiter's clouds contain a very large number of vortices and large spots. The largest of them is the so-called Great Red Spot, which is larger than the Earth. It can be seen even through a small telescope. The Great Red Spot is a massive storm in Jupiter's atmosphere that has been observed by sweat for 300 years. At least 16 moons fly in orbits around Jupiter. One of
them, is the largest satellite and our solar system; it is larger than the planet Mercury.

Travel to Jupiter

Five spaceships have already been sent to Jupiter. The fifth of these, Galileo, was sent on a six-year journey in October 1989. The Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 spacecraft made measurements for the first time. They were followed by two Voyager ships, which took breathtaking close-ups in 1979. After 1991, the Hubble Space Telescope began photographing Jupiter, and these images are of the same quality as those taken by Voyagers. In addition, the Hubble Space Telescope will take photographs for several years, while the Voyagers had only a short period of time at their disposal while they flew past Jupiter.

Poison gas clouds

The dark, reddish stripes on Jupiter are called belts, and the lighter stripes are called zones. Photos taken spaceships and the Hubble Space Telescope, tingle that in just a few beads, noticeable changes occur in the belts and butts. This is due to the fact that the characteristic features of Jupiter visible to us are actually colored and white clouds in the upper atmosphere. Near the Great Red Spot, clouds form beautiful patterns with swirls and waves. The clouds swirling in the vortices are blown away along the stripes by the strongest winds, the speed of which exceeds 500 km / h.

Much of Jupiter's atmosphere would be fatal to humans. In addition to the predominant gases hydrogen and helium, it also contains methane, toxic ammonia, water vapor and acetylene. Such a place would seem smelly to you. This gas composition is similar to that of the sun.

The white clouds contain crystals of frozen ammonia and water ice. The brown, red, and blue clouds may be due to chemicals like our dyes or sulfur. Thunderstorms can be seen through the outer layers of the atmosphere.

The active cloud layer is quite thin, less than one hundredth of the planet's radius. Below the clouds, the temperature gradually rises. And although on the surface of the cloud layer it is -160 ° C, having dropped through the atmosphere by only 60 km, we would find the same temperature as on the surface of the Earth. And a little deeper, the temperature already reaches the boiling point of water.

Unusual substance

In the depths of Jupiter, matter begins to carry itself in a very unusual way. Although it cannot be ruled out that there is a small iron core in the center of the planet, the largest part of the deep region consists of hydrogen. Inside the planet, under enormous pressure, hydrogen turns from gas into liquid. At deeper and deeper levels, pressure continues to try due to the colossal weight of the overlying layers of the atmosphere.

At a depth of about 100 km, there is an endless ocean of liquid hydrogen. Below 17,000 km, hydrogen is compressed so strongly that its atoms are destroyed. And then he begins to behave like metal; in this state it conducts electricity easily. The electric current flowing through metallic hydrogen also creates a strong magnetic field around Jupiter.

Metallic hydrogen and the depths of Jupiter is an example of an unusual type of matter that astronomers can study, which is almost impossible to reproduce in laboratory conditions.

Almost a star

Jupiter gives off more energy than it receives from the Sun. Spacecraft measurements have shown that Jupiter emits approximately 60 percent more thermal energy than it receives from solar radiation.

It is believed that additional heat comes from three sources: from the heat reserves remaining since the formation of Jupiter; sludge of energy released and the process of slow contraction, contraction of the planet; and, finally, from the energy of radioactive decay.

Planet jupiter

This heat, however, does not arise from the cessation of hydrogen into helium, as happens in stars. In fact, even the smallest stars using the energy of this termination are about 80 times more massive than Jupiter. This means that other "solar systems" may have planets larger than Jupiter, albeit smaller than a star.

Jupiter radio station

Jupiter is a natural radio station. It is impossible to extract any meaning from Jupiter's radio signals, since they are entirely composed of noise. These radio signals are created by electrons streaking through Jupiter's very strong magnetic field. Powerful storms and lightning bolts are superimposed on a chaotic radio rumble. Jupiter has a strong magnetic field that extends 50 times the planet's diameter in all directions. No other planet in the solar system possesses such strong magnetism and does not emit such powerful radio emission.

Jupiter's moons

The family of 16 moons of Jupiter is like a miniature solar system, where Jupiter plays the role of the Sun, and its magnifying glass is the role of planets. The largest moon is Ganymede, with a diameter of 5262 km. It is covered with a thick crust of ice overlying the rocky core. There are numerous traces of meteorite bombing, as well as evidence of a collision with a giant asteroid 4 billion years ago.

Callisto is almost as large as Ganymede, and its entire surface is densely covered with craters. Europe has the lightest surface. One fifth of Europe consists of water, which forms an ice shell 100 km thick on it. This ice sheet reflects light as strongly as the clouds of Venus.

Of all the loops, the most picturesque is Io, which orbits closest to Jupiter. Cyst Io is completely extraordinary - it is a mixture of black, red and yellow. This amazing color is due to the fact that a large amount of sulfur was spewed out from the bowels of Io. Voyager's cameras showed Io several active volcanoes; they throw fountains of sulfur 200 km above the surface. Sulfuric lava flies out at a speed of 1000 m and a second. Some of this lava material erupts from Io's zero gravity and forms a ring that encircles Jupiter.

Io's surface is ground. We can promise this because there are almost notes of meteor craters on it. Io's orbit is less than 400,000 km from Jupiter. Therefore, Io is exposed to tremendous tidal forces. The constant alternation of tensile and compressive tides within Io creates intense internal friction. This keeps the inner regions hot and molten despite Io's vast distance from the Sun.

In addition to four large moons, Jupiter also has small "loupes". Four of them fly lower above the surface of Jupiter than Io, and scientists consider them to be just large debris from other moons that have already ceased to exist.

\u003e\u003e\u003e Atmosphere of Jupiter

Composition jupiter's atmosphere - the gas giant of the solar system. Description of the structure, structure of the atmosphere, the Great Red Spot, photo, density, pressure.

In fact, it is foolish to determine the presence of Jupiter's atmosphere, because this is the entire planet, since it lacks a solid crust. It is a continuous mass of hydrogen and helium mixed with other gases and air. Let's see what the atmosphere of Jupiter looks like and what chemical elements are represented.

Jupiter's atmospheric composition

Before you is a huge accumulation of hydrogen (90%). The remaining 10% is helium, as well as small amounts of methane, ammonia, sulfur and water vapor. The atmospheric structure of Jupiter is shown in the photo.

If you move from the outer layers to the inner ones, then you feel an increase in temperature and pressure. That is why gases are divided into layers. Deep down, hydrogen transforms from gas to liquid and can also become metallic.

Jupiter's atmospheric layers

Scientists have calculated that the pressure on the atmospheric surface is equal to one bar, which corresponds to the situation on earth surface... Further there is the troposphere (50 km). It is represented by ammonia, ammonium hydrosulfide and water, producing attractive and visible red and white lines. Whites (colder) are called zones (gas rises), and red ones are called belts (gases fall).

Most often, these areas are separated by wind currents, but sometimes frozen cloud structures overlap red stripes and obscure them for a certain period. Scientists even managed to record the periodic erasure of the southern strip, but the northern one does not change. Dense water clouds also affect the dynamics. If you go higher, then a sharp drop in temperature is felt: from -160 ° C to -100 ° C.

Further there is the stratosphere (320 km) containing hydrocarbon haze. Here the temperature can be kept at -100 ° C. The stratosphere resembles the troposphere, as it is heated by the sun's rays and the planet's internal heat. The higher the temperature, the faster the driving speed. The layer ends at a point where the pressure exceeds the earth's one thousand times.

Above it is the thermosphere (1000 km above the surface) with a temperature of 725 ° C. It is here at the poles that the auroras occur. In addition, the thermosphere is capable of creating a faint glow that prevents the night sky from completely submerging itself in darkness. The layer is heated by particles from the magnetosphere, as well as by the Sun.

At the very top is the exosphere, in which gas particles spread into comic space. She has no clear division.

Jupiter's Great Red Spot

Thanks to its red and white stripes, Jupiter is striking in its beauty. The prominent feature is the Great Red Spot. It was discovered back in the 1600s. It is a violent storm located south of the equatorial line. These hurricanes can be seen with telescopes.

It takes 6 days for a cyclone to spin. It is so huge that two Earths can easily fit there. True, recent studies say that it can shrink.

Since the Great Red Spot is colder than the stripe, it must be higher in the atmosphere of the planet Jupiter. There is no exact data yet on the reason for the appearance of red light.

After passing a third of the way to the planet, hydrogen becomes metallic, due to which electrical charges are generated. This helps to control the strong magnetic field. Jupiter rotates extremely rapidly around its axis (once every 9.9 hours), so it easily feeds the field with electricity.

Jupiter's magnetic field is 20 times that of Earth. What's more, radio amateurs can hear electromagnetic storms. Sometimes these signals are even stronger than solar ones.

Jupiter was entered by a probe from the Galileo spacecraft. The probe obtained important data on the structure of the cloudy layer of Jupiter and the chemical composition of its atmosphere. Jupiter's atmosphere is mostly hydrogen and helium. Moreover, helium turned out to be noticeably less than in the primary composition of the Sun. This is explained by the fact that helium, being heavier, is deposited in the lower atmosphere. Only 1% by weight remains for the rest of the elements. Carbon and sulfur were found to be 2-3 times more than in the composition of the Sun. Galileo's results show that Jupiter's core temperature appears to be at least 20,000 K.

Stripes

Europe

Already the first images from Voyager drew attention to Europa - Jupiter's moon. A dense network of intersecting lines was discovered in Europe. A more detailed study of Europa's surface, carried out, in particular, by the AMS "Galileo", showed that Europa's surface is a giant ice cover broken by numerous cracks. The thickness of the cover is still unknown. According to various estimates, it is from 10 to 20 km. True, in recent times it is believed that the thickness of the ice cover is significantly less.

Several years ago, it was discovered that the movement of huge ice blocks is observed in the cracks, which is interpreted as a sign of the presence of liquid water on Europa. The presence of liquid water is a necessary condition for the existence of life. However, no research that could confirm or deny this assumption is currently impossible.

Jupiter is the largest planet. The diameter of the planet is 11 times the diameter of the Earth and is 142,718 km.

Around Jupiter is a thin ring encircling it. The density of the ring is very small, so it is invisible (like Saturn).

The period of Jupiter's rotation around the axis is 9 hours 55 minutes. Moreover, each point on the equator moves at a speed of 45,000 km / h.

Since Jupiter is not a solid ball, but consists of gas and liquid, its equatorial parts rotate faster than the circumpolar regions. The axis of rotation of Jupiter is almost perpendicular to its orbit, therefore, the change of seasons on the planet is weakly expressed.

Jupiter's mass is much greater than the mass of all other planets in the solar system combined, and is 1.9. 10 27 kg. Moreover, the average density of Jupiter is 0.24 of the average density of the Earth.

General characteristics of the planet Jupiter

Jupiter's atmosphere

Jupiter's atmosphere is very dense. It consists of hydrogen (89%) and helium (11%), resembling the chemical composition of the Sun (Fig. 1). Its length is 6000 km. Orange color atmosphere
impart phosphorus or sulfur compounds. For humans, it is destructive, as it contains toxic ammonia and acetylene.

Different parts of the planet's atmosphere rotate at different speeds. This difference gave rise to the belts of clouds, of which Jupiter has three: above - clouds of frozen ammonia; below them are crystals of ammonium hydrogen sulfide and methane, and in the lowest layer - water ice and, possibly, liquid water. The temperature of the upper clouds is 130 ° С. In addition, Jupiter has a hydrogen and a helium corona. Winds on Jupiter reach speeds of 500 km / h.

Landmark Jupiter is the Great Red Spot, which has been observed for 300 years. It was discovered in 1664 by an English naturalist Robert Hooke (1635-1703). Now its length reaches 25,000 km, and 100 years ago it was about 50,000 km. This spot was first described in 1878, and sketched 300 years ago. It seems to live its own life - it expands, then contracts. Its color also changes.

The American probes "Pioneer-10" and "Pioneer-11", "Voyager-1" and "Voyager-2", "Galileo" found out that the spot does not have a solid surface, it rotates like a cyclone in the Earth's atmosphere. It is believed that the Great Red Spot is an atmospheric phenomenon, probably the tip of a cyclone raging in Jupiter's atmosphere. A white spot over 10,000 km in size has also been found in Jupiter's atmosphere.

As of March 1, 2009, Jupiter has 63 known satellites. The largest of them are But and Europa is the size of Mercury. They are always turned to Jupiter on one side, like the Moon to Earth. These satellites are called Galilean satellites, as they were first discovered by an Italian physicist, mechanic and astronomer Galileo Galilei(1564-1642) in 1610 testing his telescope. Io has active volcanoes.

Figure: 1. Composition of the atmosphere of Jupiter

The twenty outer satellites of Jupiter are so far from the planet that they are invisible from its surface to the naked eye, and Jupiter in the sky of the farthest of them looks smaller than the Moon.