What is the largest planet in our solar system?
VerifiedAnswer: Jupiter
Explanation:
Jupiter is indeed the largest planet in our solar system, and it's truly massive! This giant planet is so big that you could fit all the other planets in our solar system inside it and still have room left over. Jupiter's diameter is approximately 142,984 kilometers, which makes it about 11 times wider than Earth.
What makes Jupiter so special? First, it's classified as a gas giant, which means it doesn't have a solid surface like Earth. Instead, Jupiter is mostly made up of hydrogen and helium gases, similar to what you'd find in the Sun. The planet's incredible size gives it such strong gravity that it acts like a cosmic vacuum cleaner, protecting inner planets like Earth by attracting asteroids and comets that might otherwise crash into us.
Jupiter's most famous feature is probably the Great Red Spot, a gigantic storm that has been raging for hundreds of years. This storm alone is larger than Earth! The planet also has a fascinating system of rings, though they're much fainter than Saturn's famous rings. Jupiter has at least 95 known moons, including four large ones called the Galilean moons: Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto, discovered by astronomer Galileo Galilei in 1610.
To put Jupiter's size in perspective, here are some amazing facts: Jupiter has a mass that's 2.5 times greater than all other planets combined. If you could somehow place Jupiter on a giant scale, it would weigh about 318 times more than Earth. The planet rotates incredibly fast too – a day on Jupiter lasts only about 10 hours, despite its enormous size.
Jupiter sits in the fifth position from the Sun and takes about 12 Earth years to complete one orbit around our star. Despite being so far away, Jupiter is often one of the brightest objects in our night sky, making it easy to spot with the naked eye. Ancient civilizations knew about Jupiter and named it after the king of the Roman gods, which seems quite fitting for such a magnificent and powerful planet!
