{"id":21501,"date":"2021-07-28T11:58:12","date_gmt":"2021-07-28T11:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skyatnightmagazine.com\/?p=95147"},"modified":"2021-07-27T11:05:35","modified_gmt":"2021-07-27T11:05:35","slug":"pictures-of-jupiter","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/rss_feed\/pictures-of-jupiter\/","title":{"rendered":"Pictures of Jupiter"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>

By Lee Dyson\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Tuesday, 27 July 2021 at 12:00 am<\/p>

\n\n

Jupiter is the undisputed King of the Planets.\u00a0It\u2019s a gas giant, its huge mass made up of hydrogen and helium.<\/p>\n

Jupiter\u2019s upper atmosphere is streaked by dark belts and white zones \u2013 streams of clouds that blow in alternating directions around the planet.<\/p>\n

Caught between these are several huge storms. The largest of these, the Great Red Spot<\/a>, has been raging for at least 150 years and could easily swallow the entire Earth.<\/p>\n

\""Jupiter\"<\/div>
Jupiter\u2019s belts, zones and Great Red Spot, as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope, 27 June 2019<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

Yet these features only make up the top few hundred km of Jupiter\u2019s atmosphere.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s thought that some kind of solid core lies at Jupiter\u2019s heart, as the density of the planet would be incredibly intense, but no one is sure exactly what this core would look like or what it\u2019s made of.<\/p>\n

Jupiter\u2019s enormous mass and rapid spin mean that it balloons out at the equator, making the planet look like it\u2019s been squashed at the poles; a shape known as an \u2018oblate spheroid\u2019.<\/p>\n

For a demonstration of this, watch our video How does spinning change the shape of planets?<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Jupiter\u2019s huge mass influences the entire Solar System, particularly the asteroid belt<\/a> where the constant tug of the planet has created openings in the belt known as the Kirkwood gaps.<\/p>\n

Facts about Jupiter<\/strong><\/h1>\n