The Solar System

PART 4 | THE SOLAR SYSTEM NASA/JPL, Univ. of AZ

Hughes Aircraft Co

Artist Concept

NASA/JPL/Univ. of AZ

NASA

Belts are dark

bands of clouds.

Zones are bright

bands of clouds.

Lightning bolts are

common in Jupiter’s

turbulent clouds.

Jupiter’s atmosphere is a very

thin layer of turbulent gas

above the liquid interior. It

makes up only about 1 percent

of the radius of the planet.

Jupiter’s moon

Europa

Shadow of

Europa

The Great Red Spot at right is a giant circulating

storm in one of the southern zones. It has lasted

at least 300 years since astronomers first

noticed it after the invention of the telescope.

Smaller spots are also circulating storms.

1a

1 Humans will probably never visit Jupiter’s

atmosphere. Its cloud layers are deathly cold, and

the deeper layers that are warmer have a crushingly high

pressure. There is no free oxygen to breathe; the gases

are roughly three-quarters hydrogen and a quarter helium,

plus small amounts of water vapor, methane, ammonia,

and similar molecules. Traces of sulfur and molecules

containing sulfur probably make it smell bad. Of course,

Jupiter has no surface, so there isn’t even a place to stand.

The only spacecraft to enter Jupiter’s atmosphere was the

Galileo probe. Released from the Galileo spacecraft, the

probe entered Jupiter’s atmosphere in 1995. It parachuted through

the upper atmosphere of clear hydrogen, released its heat shield,

and then fell through Jupiter’s stormy

atmosphere until it was crushed by the

increasing pressure.