Jupiter infodump

This is just me ranting about jupiter, my favorite planet (along with neptune) :D this probably wont be coherent at all but whatevs

Starting off, Jupiter is not only the biggest planet in our solar system, but also the oldest. Its radius is 69,911 kilometers (43,440.7 miles if you're weird), its 11 times the size of earth and 317 times the mass of it (and two and a half times that of ALL the other planets in the solar system combined)! It is believed that jupiters core formed only 1 million years after the sun, 50 million years before earth. we dont really know much about said core, because jupiter is a gas giant, meaning that most of it is made of swirling gases and liquids, making it look really pretty, but extremely difficult to explore. the infamous great red spot is a long-lasting area of high pressure creating a giant storm - roughly the size of the earth. going on for at least 300 years. but there's a possibility of it being even older.

now to be quite honest im not one of those people who is afraid of how big space objects are. i know many people with astrophobia also have megalophobia but the size of jupiter is just too much for me to comprehend or be scared of. its like im aware of how big it is however it doesnt really feel real i suppose. doesnt stop me from being impressed! What always freaked me out about Jupiter as a kid was not only the ominous eye, but also the speed at which it spins. Look at it go! Isn't that a bit freaky? On the gif you can also see how long a day lasts on each planet. I like how Mars and Earth are similar :-]   

whats also interesting (/scary) is the "inside" of it. Jupiter is composed of similar things as the sun, hydrogen and helium, but it would need eighty more times the mass to sustain thermonuclear fusion, which is what allows stars to shine. This is why jupiter is often referred to as a 'failed star', but that's kind of misleading. The actual failed stars are called brown dwarfs. They are celestial objects smaller than stars but bigger than planets, and just like jupiter they are not dense enough to initiate nuclear fusion. So in regards to their similarities, both can be roughly the same in size with brown dwarfs around 0.7-1.4 times the size of jupiter, both have horizontal cloud bands across their atmosphere and both are made mostly of hydrogen and helium. As for the differences, brown dwarfs are able to emit light, are between 13–80 times larger in mass, are hotter and have a more significant influence on their surroundings due to their more powerful magnetic field. This is why it would be more accurate to describe Jupiter as a failure of a failure. It was never really supossed to be star nor did it ever have a chance. The planet probably has three layers of "skies" that together span at around 71 kms (41 miles). the top layer is made of ammonia ice, while the middle layer is likely made of ammonium hydrosulfide crystals and the last layer may be made of water ice and vapor. There, pressure and temperature increase, compressing the hydrogen gas into a liquid. this gives jupiter the largest ocean (made of hydrogen instead of water) in the solar system. The winds on/in Jupiter are very fast, 350-650 kms (200-400 miles) per hour at avarage, but can reach up to 1450 kms/h (900 miles) and they are remarkably stable compared to the winds on planet Earth. Jupiter's winds are zonal, that is, they flow along alternating lines of latitude. It's also the most radioactive planet near us! High-energy electrons, traveling at nearly the speed of light in spirals shaped by the magnetic field enveloping Jupiter, beam out radio emissions called synchrotron radiation. 

If you were to float into Jupiter you'd be crushed by the pressure, burned, blasted with radiation and torn apart by its storms in a second. Pretty cool. 

That's all I have time to write about for now, but eventually I'll update this and write some stuff about Jupiters moons and maybe some more things :-]