{"id":48750,"date":"2023-08-26T07:33:00","date_gmt":"2023-08-26T07:33:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/45221b12-8ff6-4fd0-868e-33f4a34000e7"},"modified":"2023-08-26T09:33:02","modified_gmt":"2023-08-26T09:33:02","slug":"what-is-the-biggest-planet","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/rss_feed\/what-is-the-biggest-planet\/","title":{"rendered":"What is the biggest planet?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Find out which is the biggest planet in our Solar System and some of the biggest exoplanets. <\/p>

By Russell Deeks\n <\/p>

Published: Saturday, 26 August 2023 at 07:33 AM<\/p>

\n\n

What is the biggest planet? Well, I suppose it depends what you mean by ‘biggest planet’!<\/p>

If you mean Solar System, that\u2019s easy: the biggest planet in our Solar System is Jupiter<\/a>.<\/p>

Jupiter has a diameter of 142,800km (88,846 miles), which is more than 11 times that of Earth (a paltry 12,756km, or 7,926 miles).<\/p>

In fact, Jupiter is so big you could comfortably fit 1,300 Earths inside it.<\/p>

The second largest of the Solar System planets<\/a> is Saturn<\/a>, with Uranus<\/a> third, Neptune<\/a> fourth and Earth fifth.<\/p>\n

Saturn and its rings, as seen by the James Webb Space Telescope. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Matt Tiscareno (SETI Institute), Matt Hedman (University of Idaho), Maryame El Moutamid (Cornell University), Mark Showalter (SETI Institute), Leigh Fletcher (University of Leicester), Heidi Hammel (AURA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Most massive planet?<\/strong><\/h2>

Jupiter is the biggest planet in our Solar System if we\u2019re talking \u2018biggest\u2019 in terms of volume.<\/p>

If you mean largest planet in terms of mass, then the league table looks slightly different.<\/p>

Jupiter still comes out on top at 1.8986 x 1027<\/sup> kg, followed by Saturn, but Neptune and Uranus swap places, coming in third and fourth respectively.<\/p>

Trailed once more by Earth in fifth place with a mass of 5.9736 x 1024 <\/sup>kg.<\/p>

But asking \u2018what\u2019s the biggest planet?\u2019 and then only looking within our own Solar System is like asking \u2018who\u2019s the tallest person in the world?\u2019 and then limiting the search to people that live in your own street! <\/p>

And once you start looking at exoplanets, then there really are some giants out there.<\/p>\n

\"A
A view of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, a raging storm that’s bigger than Earth. Image data: NASA\/JPL-Caltech\/SwRI\/MSSS Image processing by Kevin M. Gill, \u00a9 CC BY<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Biggest exoplanets<\/strong><\/h2>

There are dozens of known exoplanets<\/a> that have diameters up to twice that of Jupiter.<\/p>

One of the largest about which we know a fair amount is XO-6b, which orbits the star XO-6 in the constellation of Cameloparalis, about 720 lightyears from Earth.<\/p>

XO-6b is roughly twice the size of Jupiter in terms of diameter, and has around 4.4 times the mass.<\/p>

Larger exoplanets have been identified.<\/p>

Discover some of the weirdest planets in the Universe<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Artist\u2019s
Artist\u2019s impression of exoplanet TYC 8998-760-1b. Credit: Arndt Stelter<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

TYC 8998-760-1 b, for instance, has a diameter that\u2019s three times that of Jupiter, and 22 times its mass. <\/p>

However, as exoplanets are detected rather than seen, debate rages as to whether TYC 8998-760-1 b and a handful of other, similarly sized bodies are in fact exoplanets at all.<\/p>

Some astronomers think they might instead be brown dwarfs, which are essentially failed stars.\u00a0<\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n

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