¥Jupiter contains over 70% of the mass
in the solar system outside the Sun.
¥It is about 11 times the radius and
330 times the mass of the earth.
¥It is the first representative of the
outer solar system.
¥Unlike the inner planets, Jupiter is
not a solid body, but instead is a ball of gas and
liquid (mostly hydrogen and helium).
ÐFrom the earth, there are two obvious clues to this:
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1. Jupiter, which rotates extremely rapidly (a period of about 10 hours), has a
significant bulge at the equator. We call this oblateness, and
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Jupiter has an oblateness of about 6%, which means that the equatorial diameter is
6% greater than the polar diameter.
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2. In addition, Jupiter rotates differentially, just as the Sun does. The period of rotation
at the poles is about 10 minutes less than that of the equator, while the
interior rotates at an intermediate speed.