The eight planets in the solar system have different shapes. If they are arranged according to body size , Jupiter must be the well-deserved "big brother". Although its mass is still far behind that of the sun, it is indeed 2.5 times the combined mass of other planets in the solar system.
Therefore, many people believe that if the solar system was really created by the Creator, Jupiter must be his beloved eldest son.
Eight Planets
However, Jupiter has a bad temper.. Its atmosphere maintains high-speed and strong winds all year round. Detectors entering it will be blown away by the wind and eventually lose contact. And the super storm cyclone formed on its surface is so big that it can accommodate 3 earths!
So, how scary is Jupiter?
Jupiter - the beloved eldest son
First of all, let’s take a brief look at Jupiter.
As one of the eight planets in the solar system, Jupiter has been observed very early on. It is reported that the Romans named it after the Roman main god Jupiter at that time. It can be seen that Jupiter's status is extraordinary.
Jupiter, the main god of Rome
Jupiter is different from the Earth. This difference is not only limited to size. It is also obvious in terms of structure, because in essence, Jupiter is a gas giant planet, and its main component is hydrogen.
When you see this, you may have thought of the plot of igniting Jupiter in the movie " The Wandering Earth ". However, there is a difference between science fiction and reality. Putting aside the halo of the protagonist, it is actually very difficult to successfully ignite Jupiter.
From the data point of view, Jupiter's mass is one thousandth that of the sun, but several times that of the other planets combined. Therefore, regardless of the fact that we are all planets in the solar system, Jupiter is indeed a veritable giant. Its average diameter is 139,822 kilometers, while the earth is only 12,756 kilometers.
Jupiter is very big.
Because it is a gas giant planet, scientists have always been curious about Jupiter's internal structure.
After research and speculation, they believe that Jupiter should have a stony core . The core consists of four parts, the center is solid, and its mass is about 10 to 15 times the mass of the Earth. The outer layer is liquid metal hydrogen, supercritical hydrogen and liquid hydrogen layer . Of course, there is also a certain amount of helium element in it.
In 2008, American scientist Burkhard Militzer and his colleagues confirmed through simulations that the center of Jupiter is a rocky core, which is more than twice the size previously thought, and is covered with a layer of methane and ammonia. At the very center of the ice layer is a metal ball made of iron and nickel.
Internal structure
When many people see a picture of Jupiter for the first time, they will sigh at its beauty , because its surface is not only brown, white and other colors intertwined, but also looks very artistic .
If there were only stripes, it would look a bit monotonous, so Jupiter has deliberately dotted its surface with some "spots" , of which the most conspicuous Great Red Spot is the super storm cyclone formed on its surface.
The surface of Jupiter is very beautiful
Jupiter's "Great Red Spot"
If we look at still pictures of Jupiter, we will feel that this Great Red Spot has existed since the birth of Jupiter. But judging from the animated pictures of Jupiter, this super storm cyclone is always moving, and its volume and shape are also changing.
Data shows that the Great Red Spot of Jupiter is located at 23° south latitude, with a length of about 24,000 kilometers to 40,000 kilometers and a width of about 12,000 kilometers. From this diameter, it can be seen that the Great Red Spot of can even accommodate 3 earth.
The Great Red Spot can accommodate three Earths
This super storm cyclone has existed for a long time. It existed as early as 1665 when the Italian astronomer Cassini observed Jupiter. And the direction of movement of is counterclockwise, and the wind speed can reach 400 kilometers/hour.
Jupiter's Great Red Spot
Many people may think that this wind speed does not look very scary. After all, this value is not ridiculously large, but when we compare it with the typhoon level on the earth, you will find a super storm cyclone The terrible thing.
Generally speaking, only typhoons with level 17 or above on the earth have wind speeds greater than 250 kilometers/hour. and The speed of Jupiter's storm cyclone is 400 kilometers/hour , which is nearly twice what we can't imagine.
Terrifying wind speed
Scientists have always been curious about why such super storm cyclones are formed on the surface of Jupiter. So a research team composed of scientists from many countries used supercomputers to simulate the storm cyclone.
It can be seen from the three-dimensional model that the height of Jupiter's atmosphere may exceed 5,000 kilometers. and its airflow is in such movement, constantly circulating.
Super storm cyclone simulation
It is worth mentioning that Jupiter's Great Red Spot has been changing , because judging from the current detection data, the volume of Jupiter's Great Red Spot has been changing, with a trend of becoming significantly smaller . It may take a few hundred years for the Great Red Spot to disappear from the surface of Jupiter.
In addition, people have always been very curious about the color of the Great Red Spot and don't understand why it is red .
Scientists have also been studying this, and even used the telescope to take thermal images of Jupiter . The results showed that the color change of Jupiter's Great Red Spot is related to the environment, because has complex weather and temperature changes inside it, just like us The same model as described above.
Changes in Jupiter's Great Red Spot
However, even if the Great Red Spot disappears from the surface of Jupiter one day, a new one will soon appear, because Jupiter is the famous "Storm Boy" in the solar system, and its atmospheric activity has always been appears to be extremely violent and , and the external storm has never ceased.
Jupiter's "violent" atmosphere
Jupiter is scary in two aspects. The first is its gravity, and the second is its atmosphere. Gravity needless to say, after all, the size of Jupiter is there, so if our earth is too close to Jupiter, it may be torn to pieces by it, and eventually become part of Jupiter's ring .
Jupiter's gravity is very strong
Of course, the probes that penetrate deep into Jupiter are originally on a path of no return, so they must go there even if they risk their lives. Early human detectors, such as Pioneer 10, Voyager 1, etc., all passed by Jupiter and left precious images.
And taking Voyager 1 as an example, it also received "gravity boost" in the process, saving fuel, and thus had the opportunity to fly out of the heliosphere and enter interstellar space .
Voyager 1 once passed by Jupiter
In 1989, people launched the Galileo probe, aiming to allow it to explore Jupiter in depth and no longer just pass by. Therefore, after the Galileo probe arrived at Jupiter in 1995, it launched an atmospheric detector .
It is reported that the atmosphere probe entered the Jupiter atmosphere at a huge initial speed of about 50 kilometers per second. During its survival period of nearly 58 minutes, it experienced a high temperature of about 15,000 degrees Celsius caused by friction and an acceleration equivalent to 230 times the gravity of the earth's surface. huge deceleration, and finally "lost contact" in the middle atmosphere of Jupiter with a pressure of about 23 atmospheres.
Galileo
It can be seen that the situation in the atmosphere of Jupiter is very scary. The alternately deeper and shallower areas discovered by scientists during detection are the low-pressure and high-pressure areas of Jupiter's atmosphere. The shallower areas are high-pressure areas, and the deeper areas are low-pressure areas.
They believe that the staggered distribution of belts and zones is mainly caused by the rapid rotation of Jupiter. After all, although this guy is large, it only takes 9 hours and 55 minutes to rotate once.
Jupiter's temperature and bright bands are layered
Between these bands and zones, there are also some "jet", and their wind speeds can easily reach hundreds of kilometers per hour. Moreover, the rotation of Jupiter has obvious poor rotation at different latitudes. In this case, the wind speed in various regions of Jupiter is different, and the relative movement speed of the atmosphere in its region is also very scary.
The situation inside Jupiter
Therefore, Jupiter can be regarded as one of the most terrifying planets. Don’t look at it as just a gaseous planet, but when humans want to understand it in depth, it will look harmless The "wind" directly will crush human detectors without even leaving any residue.
Terrifying storm
However, the existence of Jupiter is still very important to the earth , because its location is just beyond Mars . As we all know, there are always some uncontrolled asteroids in the solar system, or comets flying in from outside the solar system. Once they hit the earth or have friction with the earth, they will cause terrible disasters.
But the existence of Jupiter is like adding a protective wall to the earth. Because its huge gravity often captures asteroids that want to break in accidentally, in this case, the earth is protected by the "boyfriend force" of Jupiter, and it has always been in a relatively safe environment. Among .
Help the earth resist the invasion of asteroids
