Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, and slightly less than one one-thousandth the mass of the Sun.

mass definition – a coherent, typically large body of matter with no definite shape

Jupiter is the third brightest natural object in the Earth’s night sky after the Moon and Venus, and it has been observed since prehistoric times. It was named after Jupiter, the chief deity of ancient Roman religion.

Jupiter is primarily composed of hydrogen (90% by volume), followed by helium, which constitutes a quarter of its mass and a tenth of its volume. Jupiter’s rapid rotation rate of 1 rotation per 10 hours, this compares to earth’s 24 hours for 1 rotation. The most obvious visual indicator is the Great Red Spot, a giant storm which has been observed since 1831 and possibly earlier.

Jupiter’s mass is 318 times that of Earth; 2.5 times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined.

Jupiter along with Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are all gas planets and contain no land as the whole planet is filled with gas and liquids.

Cloud cover on Jupiter is 2,000 miles (3000km) thick and would take approximately 20 hours to descend and that’s if you had a ship that could withstand the harsh environment.

Saturn has 145 moons recognized by the International Astronomical Union. The number of moons increased substantially in May 2023 when 62 new moons were discovered by a team led by Edward Ashton, a postdoctoral fellow at the Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics.

so lets look at the definition of a planet – a celestial body moving in an elliptical orbit around a star.

What is so interesting about this statement is that we have already determined there is no land mass, it is just a core surrounded liquid and an extremely dense layer of gasses. This might confuse the novice as I think most people think of a planet as something that you could land on even if the environment is not conducive to humans it would still be something that you could physically touch.

In conclusion, as beautiful Jupiter is, it is also one of the most violent planets in our Solar System, and as humans unless we make a huge leap in technology will only get to enjoy this planet from afar.