How big is Jupiter? What would humans see if it were placed in lunar orbit?
People discovered very early that the positions of the five stars in the sky often change. People call them planets. These 5 planets are Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.
In addition to the 5 planets visible to the naked eye, there are 8 planets in the solar system, Uranus and Neptune, which are invisible to the naked eye, and the Earth. Among them, Jupiter is the largest of the eight planets. Today let's talk about the largest planet in the solar system-Jupiter.
Position of Jupiter in the sky in February
How can we find Jupiter? The starry sky in February is very interesting. Why do you say that? During the recent period, except for Mars, the five planets visible to the naked eye in the solar system, the other four planets have all gathered together. Jupiter, Mercury, Venus, and Saturn appear together on the horizon in the early morning. The position of Jupiter is as shown in the picture. But it's not easy to see Jupiter in the early morning before the sun rises. Because it will be daylight soon. At dawn, I can't see any stars.
Jupiter from Hubble
As we explore our solar system, we learn more about Jupiter. Some people say that facing Jupiter can make people feel an inexplicable sense of fear. Why do we have a sense of fear of Jupiter? How scary is Jupiter? I think the following places are places where Jupiter makes us feel scary.
The first point is that the size of Jupiter makes us feel fearful. How big is Jupiter? Jupiter is not a "blinking" little star like the one we see with the naked eye on Earth. It is the largest planet in the solar system. Jupiter has a diameter of 140,000 kilometers, about 11 times the diameter of the Earth. Jupiter is so big that it can hold more than 1300 earths.
Jupiter vs Earth
The mass of Jupiter is even more astonishing. Its mass is 318 times that of the earth, 2.5 times that of the other eight planets in the solar system combined, and one thousandth of the mass of the sun. What is the mass of Jupiter? Strictly speaking, Jupiter is not revolving around the sun, but Jupiter and the sun are revolving around a common center of mass. This barycenter is not inside the sun but is 48,000 kilometers away from the sun's surface. This means Jupiter is capable of shaking the sun.
Rotation of Jupiter and the Sun
In order to let everyone better understand how big Jupiter is? Let's imagine putting Jupiter in the orbit of the moon, what kind of scene will we see on the earth? At this time, the apparent diameter of Jupiter reaches 20.42°, while the apparent diameter of the full moon is 0.52°. Jupiter's apparent diameter is 39 times larger than the full moon. Then the Jupiter we see from the earth will be shown in the figure below. Don't you think it's scary?
The scene seen by Jupiter placed in the orbit of the moon
If you think Jupiter's horror is limited to this, then you underestimate Jupiter. Jupiter is far from terrifying. It also has many dangers that we cannot see,
The second point is that the bad weather on Jupiter is unbearable for us. There are many parallel red, white and brown multicolored stripes on Jupiter, which looks very beautiful. But in reality, these beautiful streaks are a never-ending storm on Jupiter. Their wind speed can reach 468-540 kilometers per hour. That's at least twice the wind speed of a Category 17 super typhoon on Earth.
Jupiter's Great Red Spot Storm and Earth
Jupiter's Great Red Spot is a well-known storm. It is the largest storm on Jupiter and the largest in the solar system. It is about 25,000 kilometers long and 12,000 kilometers wide. Jupiter's Great Red Spot is big enough to hold an Earth. Jupiter's Great Red Spot storm has been raging for at least 300 years.
Just imagine, what would happen if we were in the storm of Jupiter's Great Red Spot?
In addition to endless storms, Jupiter also has lightning tens of thousands of times stronger than that on Earth. This is also quite scary.
lightning on jupiter
The third point is that Jupiter's strong magnetic field prevents us from getting close. Earth's magnetic field protects life on Earth from solar storms. Jupiter also has a magnetic field. Jupiter's magnetic field is 100 times stronger than Earth's magnetic field. When the spacecraft is about 7 million kilometers away from Jupiter, it will be strongly disturbed by Jupiter's magnetic field. If you are not careful, the probe will lose contact with the earth. Here are Jupiter's Van Allen radiation belts. A large number of high-energy radiation particles from the sun and space are gathered here, which is extremely deadly to human beings.
Affected by Jupiter's magnetic field, even if we are active on Jupiter's satellites, it is very dangerous, and we will be fatally injured if we are not careful.
Jupiter's magnetic field
The fourth point, the strong pressure and temperature inside Jupiter will also make us think it is scary. Some netizens once thought "Jupiter is a gaseous planet, so we can easily pass through Jupiter?" Friends who have such thoughts may not have seen the strong pressure and high temperature inside Jupiter. According to the data sent back by the Jupiter probe, scientists know that the temperature of Jupiter's core can reach 20,000 to 30,000 degrees Celsius, and the pressure is equivalent to 100 to 300 million Earth atmospheres. On Jupiter, hydrogen gas is compressed into both liquid and solid forms.
Jupiter's interior
The Galileo Jupiter probe once released a sub-probe into Jupiter's atmosphere. The heavily armed probe was destroyed by Jupiter's atmosphere after only an hour of descent in Jupiter's atmosphere.
Do you still think that Jupiter is a gaseous planet and you just pass through it if you want to?
Finally, Jupiter sometimes threatens life on Earth. We often say that Jupiter is the patron saint of life on earth, but sometimes Jupiter can also pose a threat to life on earth. Jupiter's strong gravity will eject asteroids in the asteroid belt from their original orbits. In this way, they are likely to hit the earth, which will pose a serious threat to life on earth.