Glossary term: Jupiter

Description: Jupiter est la plus grande planète du Système solaire et la cinquième planète la plus éloignée du Soleil. C'est une géante gazeuse d'un rayon de 71 300 kilomètres (km), soit environ 11 fois le rayon de la Terre. La masse de Jupiter (318 fois la masse de la Terre) est supérieure à la somme des masses de toutes les autres planètes et de tous les corps plus petits du système solaire.

Sa distance typique par rapport au Soleil est de 778 millions de km, soit environ cinq unités astronomiques (distance Terre-Soleil), et il lui faut un peu moins de 12 années terrestres pour parcourir son orbite. En 2023, les astronomes ont détecté plus de 90 lunes ou satellites naturels en orbite autour de Jupiter.

Jupiter est visible à l'œil nu. Son nom en anglais dérive du roi des dieux romains. Observée dans un petit télescope, on peut voir des ceintures de nuages de différentes couleurs et une gigantesque région orageuse circulaire rouge (la "Grande Tache rouge"). Quelques sondes spatiales ont été envoyées vers Jupiter au cours des dernières décennies et, en 2016, la sonde Juno de la NASA a commencé à explorer Jupiter et ses lunes de manière beaucoup plus détaillée.

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Term and definition status: The original definition of this term in English have been approved by a research astronomer and a teacher
The translation of this term and its definition is still awaiting approval

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Related Media

The planet Jupiter with the two of the four Galilean moons (visible as bright dots) orbiting it.

Jupiter's Rotation, by Vishal Sharma, India

Caption: Third place in the 2021 IAU OAE Astrophotography Contest, category Galilean moons: Jupiter’s Rotation, by Vishal Sharma, India. This time-lapse beautifully shows the rotation of Jupiter and the passage of two Galilean moons on the right side of the frame. Jupiter completes one rotation in just under 10 hours and we see as the Great Red Spot makes its way from left to right. The two moons travel a noticeable fraction of their orbit in this short time. This image was taken in 2020 in the North of India.
Credit: Vishal Sharma/IAU OAE

License: CC-BY-4.0 Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) icons

The planet Jupiter, seen here as a bright disk, is orbited by the four Galilean moons, seen here as bright dots

Jupiter Moons Movie2, by Nicolas Hurez, Paul-Antoine Matrangolo, and Carl Pennypacker, United States of America

Caption: Second place in the 2021 IAU OAE Astrophotography Contest, category Galilean moons. This sequence shows the orbit of the four Galilean moons around the planet Jupiter. Almost two entire orbits of the innermost moon, Io, can be seen, with the other moons (Europa and Ganymede, but in particular Callisto) being further away, orbiting noticeably slower. The images were obtained in 2018 with the Las Cumbres Global Observatory at different locations on Earth, allowing a continuous sequence of images over approximately half a week without gaps during the day. With clear skies and over the course of several nights, the motion of the Galilean moons can also be observed with binoculars (ideally steady your elbows on a surface).
Credit: Nicolas Hurez, Paul-Antoine Matrangolo and Carl Pennypacker/IAU OAE

License: CC-BY-4.0 Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) icons

Jupiter with coloured horizontal bands of clouds. The shadow of the moon Io is seen as a dark circle in the top left

Jupiter, Io and its shadow, by Ralf Burkart, Germany

Caption: First place in the 2021 IAU OAE Astrophotography Contest, category Galilean moons. This time-lapse of Jupiter taken in 2017 from Germany beautifully illustrates the transit of one of the Galilean moons, Io, in front of Jupiter. As this is simply a moon casting a shadow on a planet it is equivalent to a lunar eclipse on Earth observed from further away. While the shadow of the moon is clearly visible from the beginning, it might be difficult to spot the moon itself against the background of the beautiful atmospheric bands of Jupiter the first time the video is seen. Watching it repeatedly allows appreciating the rapid motion and rotation in this fantastic observation.
Credit: Ralf Burkart/IAU OAE

License: CC-BY-4.0 Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) icons

Jupiter

Caption: Cette vue du disque complet de Jupiter a été obtenue le 21 avril 2014 avec la Camera 3 à grand champ (WFC3) de Hubble. Elle montre la grande tâche rouge proéminente, un gigantesque cyclone. Des bandes de nuages couvrent la surface, dont les couleurs proviennent de gaz comme l'ammoniac et d'autres composés chimiques.
Credit: NASA, ESA, et A. Simon (Goddard Space Flight Center) credit link

License: CC-BY-4.0 Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) icons

The Milky Way rises from the horizon over a landscape with trees, water and the distant glow of city lights

Flowing Night Sky

Caption: Honourable mention in the 2022 IAU OAE Astrophotography Contest, category Time lapses of celestial patterns. This time-lapse was shot from Slovakia in August 2020. By fixing the relative movement of the sky to Earth's rotation in some of the frames, we can experience a different perspective as a viewer. The Milky Way, our home galaxy, is visible throughout the whole video. The bright objects near the Milky Way are Jupiter and Saturn, close together, Jupiter being the brighter one. This video also shows the interaction of amateur astronomers observing the Perseids meteor shower with their telescopes pointed towards the sky. An unfortunate aspect of the art of astronomical observing, clouds can suddenly cover the whole sky. The fog occurs mostly because of the higher humidity after the rain. Most of the light trails in the sky are made by satellites, but some of them, appearing just very briefly and not very noticeably, are meteors, as the video was shot around the peak of Perseids meteor shower.
Credit: Robert Barsa/IAU OAE

License: CC-BY-4.0 Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) icons

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