Jupiter is the biggest planet in the solar system but unlike Earth it has no ground to speak off. It is made up of dense helium and hydrogen, along with water, nitrogen, and other gases.
Despite it being gas that doesn’t mean things will just pass through it. In fact when the 21 fragments of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 slammed into the surface of Jupiter during the 16th-22nd July 1994 huge explosions with plumes going thousands of kilometers high were observed. Amazingly enough this was also the first ever observed collission between two solar system bodies.
Another unique feature about Jupiter is that it has a huge storm that has been moving across the surface of Jupiter for some 300 years maybe more. In fact people on Earth can actually see and locate this storm by looking for a big red spot on its surface.
Lastly if it wasn’t already quite different to Earth it doesn’t have 1 moon but 39 moons of which the four biggest ones are known as the Galilean Moons which were discovered centuries ago by the scientist Galileo.
No comments:
Post a Comment