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Atmosphere of Jupiter facts for kids

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Jupiter's swirling colourful clouds
Atmosphere of Jupiter

The atmosphere of Jupiter is the largest planetary atmosphere in the Solar System. It is mostly made up of molecular hydrogen and helium. It is also made up of methane, ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, water, nitrogen, sulfur, and noble gases.

Images for kids

  • Structure of Jovian atmosphere

    Vertical structure of the atmosphere of Jupiter. Note that the temperature drops together with altitude above the tropopause. The Galileo atmospheric probe stopped transmitting at a depth of 132 km below the 1 bar "surface" of Jupiter.

  • Map of Jupiter

    An azimuthal equidistant projection of Jupiter's atmosphere centered about Jupiter's south pole

  • Wind speeds on Jupiter

    Zonal wind speeds in the atmosphere of Jupiter

  • PIA02863 - Jupiter surface motion animation

    Zones, belts and vortices on Jupiter. The wide equatorial zone is visible in the center surrounded by two dark equatorial belts (SEB and NEB). The large grayish-blue irregular "hot spots" at the northern edge of the white Equatorial Zone change over the course of time as they march eastward across the planet. The Great Red Spot is at the southern margin of the SEB. Strings of small storms rotate around northern-hemisphere ovals. Small, very bright features, possible lightning storms, appear quickly and randomly in turbulent regions. The smallest features visible at the equator are about 600 kilometers across. This 14-frame animation spans 24 Jovian days, or about 10 Earth days. The passage of time is accelerated by a factor of 600,000. The occasional black spots in the image are moons of Jupiter getting into the field of view.

  • Jupiter at a glance

    This image from the HST reveals a rare wave structure just north of the planet's equator.

  • Thermal emission of Jupiter

    Thermal image of Jupiter obtained by NASA Infrared Telescope Facility

  • NH Jupiter IR (contrast enhanced)

    New Horizons IR view of Jupiter's atmosphere

  • Great Cold Spot discovered on Jupiter

    Great Cold Spot on Jupiter

  • NASA14135-Jupiter-GreatRedSpot-Shrinks-20140515

    The Great Red Spot is decreasing in size (May 15, 2014).

  • GRS in far infrared

    An infrared image of GRS (top) and Oval BA (lower left) showing its cool center, taken by the ground based Very Large Telescope. An image made by the Hubble Space Telescope (bottom) is shown for comparison.

  • Jupiter-Earth-Spot comparison

    Approximate size comparison of Earth superimposed on this Dec 29, 2000 image showing the Great Red Spot

  • Redjunior

    Oval BA (left)

  • Oval BA (Hubble)

    Formation of Oval BA from three white ovals

  • Jupiter lightnings

    Lightning on Jupiter's night side, imaged by the Galileo orbiter in 1997

  • JIRAM Image Southern CPCs

    JIRAM image of southern CPCs

  • 790106-0203 Voyager 58M to 31M reduced

    Time-lapse sequence from the approach of Voyager 1 to Jupiter

  • Great Red Spot From Voyager 1

    A narrower view of Jupiter and the Great Red Spot as seen from Voyager 1 in 1979

  • Jupiter and its shrunken Great Red Spot

    Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 took the GRS region at its smallest size ever.

  • Whiteovals

    The white ovals that later formed Oval BA, imaged by the Galileo orbiter in 1997

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Atmosphere of Jupiter Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.