Hello, I am Jupiter! Yes, I am badass!

4 min readMay 23, 2021

Images cropped from Google Images for reference

I am the largest and oldest planet in our Solar System

Yes, that is correct! Jupiter is an early bloomer. The researchers and scientist discovered that our planet Jupiter was formed within four million years after the formation of the Sun. An interesting fact is Jupiter is 2.5 times more massive than all of the other planets in the Solar System combined. Jupiter is so huge that it could hold more than 1300 Earths. Phew! Beyond imagination! For example, if Jupiter was the size of a basketball, Earth would be the size of a grape. :)

Now the question arises that how it is possible to figure out the age of Jupiter? Thomas Kruijer is a geochemist and studies the chemical composition of rocks. To study more about this gas giant Jupiter, he and his colleagues focused their minds on some of the smallest meteorites. In one of the press release, Thomas Kruijer said, “We do not have any samples from Jupiter, in contrast to other bodies like the Earth, Mars, the moon and asteroids. In our study, we use isotope signatures of meteorites which are derived from asteroids to calculate Jupiter’s age.” For more information, see Lab scientist finds Jupiter is one old-timer.

I am the fastest spinning planet in our Solar System

Now you must be thinking that Jupiter is so huge in size and so massive and is the oldest member of our Solar System family, it would be slow to rotate around its axis. Well, that's not true! In fact, it is the fastest planet in our Solar System. Its rotational velocity is 45,300 km/h.

So, a day on Jupiter lasts for 9 hours and 55 minutes. But the year on Jupiter is 11.8 Earth years. And because Jupiter is spinning so rapidly that it has flattened out at the poles a little and it is bulging at its equator. Due to this rapid rotation, Jupiter generates powerful magnetic fields and it helps to contribute to the hazardous radiations surrounding it.

I have 79 moons and counting….

Planet Jupiter has 79 moons (count is still increasing) and some of which are even larger than planet Mercury! Well, almost all Jupiter’s moons are tiny having a diameter of fewer than 10 kilometres. Jupiter’s four major and famous moons are Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. And some of the moons may actually be capable of harbouring life.

I take the sword and save my close friend Earth :)

An ample amount of comets and asteroids are pulled in by Jupiter’s gravity. Because of its huge mass and proximity to the Kuiper belt, Jupiter attracts loads of visitors. Jupiter is the Solar System’s asteroids vacuum cleaner. According to astronomers and scientist, Jupiter experiences at least 200 times more meteorite impacts than Earth. Not only it protects the Earth but helps in stabilizing the Solar System.

A little more about that red eye on me…

This Red Spot was first observed in 1831 by an astronomer named Samuel Heinrich Schwabe. This storm has existed for at least 190 years but it could be even older than that. The great red spot you see on Jupiter is actually a storm in the southern hemisphere with crimson-coloured clouds. It is slightly oval in shape and approximately 40,000 km wide apart. Well, it is large enough to immerse Earth.

In 1979, the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft revealed that it spins counterclockwise with a time span of about seven days with the wind velocities at its periphery of 400 km (250 miles) per hour. The appearance, formation and source of that red colour are still unknown.

Some fun facts

The ancient Babylonians were the first astronomers to track Jupiter.
Yes, Jupiter contains thin rings but they are very faint and made up of dust rather than ice.
Jupiter is a failed star.
Ganymede (Jupiter’s moon) is the largest moon in the solar system.
Eight spacecraft have visited Jupiter.

Additional resources

Do you love Jupiter? ❤