Questions tagged [jupiter]
Questions regarding Jupiter, the 5th and largest planet in the Solar System.
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When will the next series of mutual eclipses of Jupiter's moons begin?
When I was young (I won't tell you when) I saw one of the four Galilean moons of Jupiter suddenly disappear while watching through a small refractor. It wasn't a coincidence, I'd seen the prediction ...
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How much rock has Jupiter "swallowed"?
During its formation approximately 4.5 bya, Jupiter passed through what is now the asteroid belt,gravitationally deflecting some spacewards and some sunwards.
Logically, Jupiter, due to its massive ...
Alan Wood
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Requirements to resolve position of Jovian Whistlers up to magnitude of Red Spot with amateur radio equipment?
Can I sense a bright star pointing an eight foot antenna towards it? is a while ago, but the discussion about this question I found very interesting. Please forgive me that I am not an expert in ...
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Is Jupiter made entirely out of gas?
I heard that Jupiter is made out of gas. But in school I learned that Jupiter has gravity which is 2.5 times that of Earth (Gravity that can tear apart a comet) and gravity is proportional to mass.
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Why did the Comet Shoemaker-Levy-9 fragments cause such large explosions on Jupiter?
In July 1994, the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 (D/1993 F2) tidally fragmented and these fragments collided into Jupiter, as per the image below.
Image source
The question is, what mechanisms resulted in ...
user8
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Why can't our Sun be a binary with Jupiter as a T or Y dwarf?
I just learned about Brown Dwarfs, they are "failed" stars, they narrowly missed the stellar mass mark. I learned that Y Dwarfs have temperature as low as 80 Fahrenheit (The first one found by WISE ...
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How is the diameter of a gas giant calculated?
As we know atmospheres of celestial bodies don't just stop at a given distance. They gradually become less dense as you move away from the center.
I understand that the diameter of stars is ...
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How do moons get captured?
A moon-sized object is running loose in the Solar System, perhaps after a planetary collision. As it approaches a planet, it's presumably following an approximately hyperbolic path. If it goes on ...
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Why is the Great Red Spot shrinking?
The Great Red Spot is an anticyclonic storm on Jupiter that is bigger than the Earth. Based on the Wikipedia article, it has been shrinking in size for the last 400 years, going from 41 to 16 thousand ...
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How to calculate conjunctions of 2 planets
So, the recent conjunction of Jupiter and Venus seems to have spawned lots of excitement over this "rare" event. But what I can't figure out, is exactly how rare it is. And I've seen such conflicting ...
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Will Jupiter eventually stop shrinking?
Jupiter is currently shrinking due to the Kelvin-Helmholtz mechanism. Will this mechanism eventually hold or getting slower? If so, at what size of Jupiter will it stop and why? If not, what will ...
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Jupiter FM - What are practical and inexpensive ways for the amateur detection of signals from Jupiter, especially of the transit of her moons?
What modifications to a standard AM/FM or shortwave radio are needed in order to be able to detect radio-wave signals emitted from Jupiter?
Would it be possible to detect the transit of the major ...
user8
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The compatibility of the Grand Tack hypothesis with the "core-warping impact" theory of Jupiter's diffuse core
In recent years, the Juno mission revealed that Jupiter's core was much more diffuse than astronomers had expected.
One theory is that "within a few million years" of its formation, Jupiter ...
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How can tidal heating lower Io's orbit?
This answer to the question Is Io a magic energy machine? suggests that the energy from the internal heating of Io due to tidal "squishing" as it moves cyclically closer and farther from Jupiter in ...
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Has the conjunction between Venus, Jupiter, and Regulus only occurred twice in 2,000 years?
I recently heard the claim that mid-July, the "Star of Bethlehem" formed for the first time in 2,000 years, where the Star of Bethlehem is a three-way conjunction between Venus, Jupiter, and Regulus. ...
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Does Jupiter help to protect the Earth against comets/asteroids impacts?
Does Jupiter help to protect the Earth against comets or asteroids impacts?
Some astronomers believe that one reason Earth is habitable is that the gravity of Jupiter does help protect us from some ...
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Are we sure solar cycle is not related to the orbit of Jupiter?
Are we still debating the relationship between Jupiter and solar cycle? If not, what is the common or mainstream opinion about this topic? Or in other words, have we disproved the solar cycle is ...
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A smudge near Jupiter
I was looking at the Jupiter for the first time today and I have noticed a smudge near it. Could someone explain what it is, please? I was looking online but did not find anything. So I thought that ...
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According to my calculations Jupiter's moons do not follow Kepler's 3rd law - Why is that?
I'm asked to collect data on the orbital properties of the four Galilean satellites of Jupiter and show that they obey the same scaling as in Kepler's 3rd law.
My approach for moon Io:
Online, I ...
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What would the pressure and temperature of gas be, right above Jupiter's gas/liquid boundary?
Older pages like this "Exploration of the Solar System" course page describe the transition as being a few hundred kilometers down.
More recent findings seem to put the boundary deeper. See
The ...
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Is GAIA the only game in town for looking at quadrupole gravitational deflection of light?
From Gerry Gilmore (2018) Gaia: 3-dimensional census of the Milky Way Galaxy
4.4 Fundamental physics
Relativistic effects are highly significant for Gaia measurement accuracy, with
tests of General ...
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If Jupiter were to absorb all other planets in the solar system, would it reach degeneracy pressure?
Jupiter's mass is about the maximum a planet can be before it starts to fuse hydrogen in its core and undergo a massive transformation.
Total mass of all solar system objects in question is: here.
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What were the two bright dots that showed up near Jupiter and vanished after seconds? [closed]
I saw two bright lights near Jupiter and I’m pretty sure that it wasn’t just an airplane. It had almost the same level of brightness as Jupiter, and I was wondering what it could be. Can anyone ...
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Why don't the inner moons of Jupiter have tidally-induced volcanism?
Volcanism on Io is caused by the fact that it is tidally heated. There are four moons that are closer to Jupiter than Io with higher eccentricities, yet they don't seem to have any volcanism at their ...
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Why is Jupiter's Great Red Spot reddish?
The Great Red Spot is a persistent anticyclonic storm, 22° south of Jupiter's equator. Why is it reddish?
From Wikipedia:
It is not known exactly what causes the Great Red Spot's reddish color.
Are ...
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What is behind the Great Red Spot's longevity?
On Earth, storms can last a few days. The Great Red Spot on Jupiter is a storm that has been going on for more than 400 years now. What is different on Jupiter that makes it possible for storms to ...
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Why isn't the asteroid belt affected by Jupiter's gravitational field?
Jupiter's mass is just about a 1000th of the sun's and the asteroid belt is slightly closer to Jupiter than it is to the sun.
If the heavier the object, the more curvy space is around it, why isn't ...
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If Jupiter is a gas-giant then why don't its features change?
A naive question. When we look at Jupiter, we see that its features didn't change largely over many years, for instance, the red-spot. If it is composed of gases and liquids, then why aren't the ...
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What is this 877-year cycle in the orbits of Jupiter & Saturn, and this multimillion-year cycle in the lunar orbit?
The book The Theory That Would Not Die (by Sharon Bertsch McGrayne, 2011) states the following on page 28:
He [Pierre-Simon Laplace] used other methods between 1785 and 1788 to determine that Jupiter ...
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Why does the solar analemma have a strange shape on Jupiter?
I'm trying to look at what the solar analemma looks like from different planets, using Stellarium. To plot the analemma, I go into the ephemeris tab of the astronomical calculations window. From there,...
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How was Io not torn apart by tidal forces during its formation?
Jupiter's moon Io is arguably one of the most volcanically active bodies in the Solar System. The reason, according to NASA's page Scientists to Io: Your Volcanoes Are in the Wrong Place is believed ...
user8
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Why doesn't the Sun wobble towards Jupiter instead of away from Jupiter?
This is the page I am referring to. It seems counterintuitive to me that the Sun should be on the opposite side of the barycenter's wobble. I realize I am wrong, but I cannot see why I am wrong. Can ...
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Is there any orbit at which the Roche limit can be "felt"?
Do any of the planets have a Roche limit that is strong enough to be felt by an astronaut whilst in orbit?
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Is the Jupiter-Sun system considered a binary system of some type?
Since Jupiter is very massive, it is the only planet (in our solar system) that has a center of mass with the Sun that lies outside the volume of the Sun. (Source)
If Jupiter was a star, they would ...
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What will happen when landing on Jupiter?
Jupiter is a gas giant, so landing on it will not be like landing on Earth, our Moon or Mars etc., as it does not have a solid surface like these.
If we have a hypothetical spaceship or probe landing ...
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Why do gas giants have clearly delineated surfaces, whereas the Earth's atmosphere fades into space?
I've just seen this Forbes article.
Why do gas giants appear to have clearly delineated surfaces, whereas the Earth's atmosphere fades into space?
Is it just a matter of scale? Or is there some ...
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Is Jupiter warming the Earth? (Earth, Sun Jupiter system)
If Sun-Jupiter baricentre is outside the Sun, does that mean the Sun is orbiting around that point too right?
Then the Sun shouldn't be nearer to the Earth at some point during the Sun-Jupiter orbit (...
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Can magnetism escape a black hole?
I know light, and practically nothing but gravity can escape a black hole. My question is: can magnetism escape a black hole?
A couple things that convince me it can are:
Jupiter's magnetic field ...
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Is it possible to see Callisto with the naked eye when it's at its greatest elongation from Jupiter?
A quick search shows that Callisto has an apparent magntidue of 5.65, which would make it easily visible under relatively dark skies. Being the farthest Galilean moon, does it ever get far away from ...
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Counter clockwise rotation of storms at Jupiter's north pole. What explanations have been proposed?
On Earth, high pressures and low pressures occur interchangeably. So that where two pressure systems intersect, they move the air in the same direction. But as Juno revealed the first observations of ...
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What Would it Look Like Inside Jupiter's Great Red Spot?
From what I've read, Jupiter's 'Great Red Spot' is an unbelievably powerful storm. Do astronomers and scientists have any idea of what that might look like if it were possible to be inside/below it? ...
user10636
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How much mass do the volcanoes of Io erupt past escape velocity?
While trying to do some calculations to answer this quesion, I got stuck missing a crucial piece of data: I have no clue how much mass the volcanoes of Io manage to throw out of the gravity well of ...
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Planets looks like normal stars when I see them using telescope
I've been trying to see planets using my 114 mm (aperture) f=900 mm telescope. For the moon, I got very good quality pictures, but when I try to see planets they just appear to be as if I'm looking at ...
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Could we fly/drive through Jupiter?
If Jupiter is made of gas, could we fly or drive through it or would its center be too dense?
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Selecting a Telescope for Viewing Planets
I hope to observe planets like Jupiter and Saturn, and moons. I am a novice when it comes to telescopes and I know images in magazines are not taken with at least 12-inch telescope in a middle of ...
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Lucky imaging with Celestron 14 - is this result reasonable?
I attempted to do some lucky imaging of Jupiter using a permanent installation (Celestron $14$" SCT + Paramount ME II) and Nikon D5600 attached directly to a Baader Hyperion 8-24mm eyepiece (...
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Gravitational acceleration inside a planet
The gravitational acceleration, g, inside the Earth generally decreases with decreasing distance to the center:
However, apparently for Jupiter, the gravitational acceleration only increases with ...
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What kind of telescope do I need to see most of the Jupiter's moons?
I have a simple Newtonian reflector telescope. Using it, I am able to see the Galilean moons of Jupiter. However, Jupiter has much more moons than that (Wikipedia says 67 have been discovered this far)...
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What calculations show that Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 orbited Jupiter for several decades before its spectacular impact? (Chodas, Sekanina & Yeomans)
This answer to A moon in eccentric orbit dipping below Roche limit includes the following about Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9
Here is a nice figure of its last passes:
I looked up "fragment A" in ...
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Jupiter with a mobile phone and Celestron Astro FI 102mm Maksutov
My name is John, I am new here and now that I am retired I decided to get myself my first ever telescope, why I never got one before I have no idea...probably too busy.
So I thought I would try and ...
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