How many kilometers from the earth to the planet Jupiter. Distance from Earth to Saturn. How far is Saturn from us? Size ratio of Saturn and Earth
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How long does it take to fly from Earth to Jupiter?: distance to the Sun and Earth, rotation in an elliptical orbit, launches of the Voyager and Juno spacecraft with photos.
We know that Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system. Nose how long is the flight to Jupiter?? And what influences this?
Due to its scale, the gas giant is difficult to miss. The planet itself is already interesting because of its weather conditions and satellites that can host subsurface oceans. This means that these are the best places to look for life.
And yet we are not yet preparing a human mission and are only talking about a flight to Mars. The fact is that Jupiter is located too far away. How much? Let's see how many years it took spacecraft to fly to Jupiter.
Pioneer 10 was the first to set off in 1972. He spent 640 days, but chose a route that allowed him to explore the outer system, moving 130,000 km from the planet itself. A year later, Pioneer 11 flew, which took 606 days. The distance from Jupiter is 21,000 km.
In 1979, Voyager 1 spent 546 days on the trip, while Voyager 2 took 688 days. On average, it turns out that you will need 550-650 days. But if you want to go into orbit, you'll have to slow down.
The only one in orbit was Galileo in 1989. He couldn't go to the planet directly, so he made two gravitational slingshots through Earth and Venus and spent 2242 days on the road. This slowing down is important, otherwise you will simply overshoot the object.
In 2016, the Juno spacecraft approached the planet, which took 1,795 days. But this is not the last visit. We are still interested in satellites, so ESA may launch a device in 2022 that will travel... for 20 years!
The main goal of the mission was Europe, which could preserve life in its ocean. How long is the flight? If you are just rushing by, then about 600 days, and if you are aiming for an orbital position, then about 2000. Now you know how long it is to fly from Earth to Jupiter.
When a person is going to drive his own car to an unfamiliar city, the first thing he does is find out the distance to it in order to estimate the travel time and stock up on gasoline. The distance traveled on the road will not depend on whether you go on the road in the morning or in the evening, today or in a couple of months. With space travel, the situation is somewhat more complicated and the distance to Jupiter, measured yesterday, in six months will turn out to be one and a half times greater, and then will begin to decrease again. On Earth, it would be very inconvenient to travel to a city that itself is constantly moving.
The average distance from our planet to the gas giant is 778.57 million km, but this figure is about as relevant as information about the average temperature in a hospital. The fact is that both planets move around the Sun (or, more precisely, around the center of mass of the Solar System) in elliptical orbits, and with different orbital periods. For Earth it is equal to one year, and for Jupiter it is almost 12 years (11.86 years). The minimum possible distance between them is 588.5 million km, and the maximum is 968.6 million km. The planets seem to be riding on a swing, now approaching, now moving away.
The Earth moves at a higher orbital speed than Jupiter: 29.78 km/s versus 13.07 km/s, and is significantly closer to the center of the solar system, and therefore catches up with it every 398.9 days, coming closer. Taking into account the ellipticity of the motion trajectories, there are points in outer space where the distance between the planets becomes almost minimal. For the Earth-Jupiter pair, the period of time through which they regularly approach each other in this way is about 12 years.
Great Controversies
Such moments in time are usually called dates of great confrontations. These days, Jupiter surpasses all celestial objects in the starry sky in its brightness, approaching the glow of Venus, and with the help of a small telescope or binoculars it becomes possible to observe not only the planet itself, but even its satellites. Therefore, astronomers and simply connoisseurs of the beauty of the starry sky are looking forward to oppositions in order to take a closer look at a distant and little-studied cosmic body and maybe even discover something hitherto unknown to science.
The next unique opportunity to observe Jupiter in the most comfortable conditions for an earthly observer will present itself in the last ten days of September 2022. At such moments on the surface of the planet, using a small telescope, you can clearly see the famous Red Spot, stripes on the disk of the celestial body, various vortex flows in them, and much more. Anyone who has looked through a telescope at this intriguing planet once in his life will strive to do it again and again.
Fly later to arrive earlier
Inside the Great Red Spot
Knowing the kinematics of planetary motion and the planned speed of the spacecraft, you can choose the optimal launch date for the launch vehicle in order to fly to Jupiter as quickly as possible, using less fuel. To be more precise, it is not the interplanetary station that flies to the celestial body, but the two of them moving towards the meeting place, only the route of the planet has remained unchanged for thousands of years, and the trajectory of the aircraft can be chosen. There are options when a vehicle that takes off later will be able to reach the target earlier, so in order to realize them, they strive to build a rocket by the date suitable for launch. There are cases when it is more profitable to fly longer, but then use a “free” source of energy during acceleration and maneuvers - the gravitational attraction of other planets.
Planet exploration
Eight space missions have already taken part in the study of Jupiter, and the ninth, Juno, is underway. The start date of each of them was chosen taking into account the chosen route.
Thus, the Galileo orbital station, before becoming an artificial satellite of Jupiter, spent more than six years on the road, but it managed to visit Venus and a couple of asteroids, and also fly past the Earth twice.
But the New Horizons spacecraft reached the gas giant in just 13 months, since its main target is much further away - Pluto and the Kuiper Belt.
Besides the Sun, the planet Jupiter is indeed the largest in size and mass in our solar system; it is not without reason that it is named after the main and most powerful god of the ancient pantheon - Jupiter in the Roman tradition (aka Zeus, in the Greek tradition). Also, the planet Jupiter is fraught with many mysteries and has been mentioned more than once on the pages of our scientific website. In today’s article we will collect all the information about this interesting giant planet together, so, forward to Jupiter.
Who discovered Jupiter
But first, a little history of the discovery of Jupiter. In fact, the Babylonian priests and part-time astronomers of the ancient world were already well aware of Jupiter; it was in their works that there were the first mentions of this giant in history. The thing is that Jupiter is so large that it could always be seen in the starry sky with the naked eye.
The famous astronomer Galileo Galilei was the first to study the planet Jupiter through a telescope, and he also discovered the four largest moons of Jupiter. At that time, the discovery of Jupiter's moons was an important argument in favor of Copernicus' heliocentric model (that the center of the celestial system is, and not the Earth). And the great scientist himself suffered persecution by the Inquisition for his revolutionary discoveries at that time, but that’s another story.
Subsequently, many astronomers looked at Jupiter through their telescopes, making various interesting discoveries, for example, the astronomer Cassini discovered a large red spot on the surface of the planet (we will write more about it below) and also calculated the rotation period and differential rotation of the atmosphere of Jupiter. Astronomer E. Bernard discovered the last satellite of Jupiter, Amatheus. Observations of Jupiter using increasingly powerful telescopes continue to this day.
Features of the planet Jupiter
If we compare Jupiter with our planet, then the size of Jupiter is 317 times larger than the size of the Earth. In addition, Jupiter is 2.5 times larger than all other planets in the solar system combined. As for the mass of Jupiter, it is 318 times greater than the mass of the Earth and 2.5 times greater than the mass of all other planets in the solar system combined. Jupiter's mass is 1.9 x 10*27.
Temperature of Jupiter
What is the temperature on Jupiter during the day and at night? Considering the great distance of the planet from the Sun, it is logical to assume that it is cold on Jupiter, but not everything is so simple. The outer atmosphere of the giant is indeed quite cold, the temperature there is approximately -145 degrees C, but as you move several hundred kilometers deeper into the planet it becomes warmer. And not just warmer, but simply hot, since on the surface of Jupiter the temperature can reach up to +153 C. Such a strong temperature difference is due to the fact that the surface of the planet consists of burning, releasing heat. Moreover, the planet's molten interior releases even more heat than Jupiter itself receives from the Sun.
All this is complemented by the strongest storms raging on the planet (wind speeds reach 600 km per hour), which mix the heat emanating from the hydrogen component of Jupiter with the cold air of the atmosphere.
Is there life on Jupiter
As you can see, the physical conditions on Jupiter are very harsh, so given the lack of a solid surface, high atmospheric pressure and high temperature on the very surface of the planet, life on Jupiter is not possible.
Atmosphere of Jupiter
The atmosphere of Jupiter is huge, as is Jupiter itself. The chemical composition of Jupiter's atmosphere is 90% hydrogen and 10% helium; the atmosphere also includes some other chemical elements: ammonia, methane, hydrogen sulfide. And since Jupiter is a gas giant without a solid surface, there is no boundary between its atmosphere and the surface itself.
But if we began to descend deeper into the bowels of the planet, we would notice changes in the density and temperature of hydrogen and helium. Based on these changes, scientists have identified such parts of the planet's atmosphere as the troposphere, stratosphere, thermosphere and exosphere.
Why Jupiter is not a star
Readers may have noticed that in its composition, and especially in the predominance of hydrogen and helium, Jupiter is very similar to the Sun. In this regard, the question arises why Jupiter is still a planet and not a star. The fact is that he simply did not have enough mass and heat to begin the fusion of hydrogen atoms into helium. According to scientists, Jupiter needs to increase its current mass by 80 times in order to begin thermonuclear reactions that occur on the Sun and other stars.
Photo of the planet Jupiter
Surface of Jupiter
Due to the absence of a solid surface on the giant planet, scientists took the lowest point in its atmosphere, where the pressure is 1 bar, as a certain conventional surface. Various chemical elements that make up the planet's atmosphere contribute to the formation of the colorful clouds of Jupiter that we can observe in a telescope. It is ammonia clouds that are responsible for the red-and-white striped color of the planet Jupiter.
Great Red Spot on Jupiter
If you carefully examine the surface of the giant planets, you will definitely notice the characteristic large red spot, which was first noticed by the astronomer Cassini while observing Jupiter in the late 1600s. What is this great red spot of Jupiter? According to scientists, this is a large atmospheric storm, so large that it has been raging in the southern hemisphere of the planet for more than 400 years, and possibly longer (considering that it could have arisen long before Cassini saw it).
Although recently, astronomers have noticed that the storm has begun to slowly subside, as the size of the spot began to shrink. According to one hypothesis, the great red spot will take a circular shape by 2040, but how long it will last is unknown.
Age of Jupiter
At the moment, the exact age of the planet Jupiter is unknown. The difficulty in determining it is that scientists do not yet know how Jupiter was formed. According to one hypothesis, Jupiter, like other planets, was formed from the solar nebula about 4.6 billion years ago, but this is just a hypothesis.
Rings of Jupiter
Yes, Jupiter, like any decent giant planet, has rings. Of course, they are not as large and noticeable as those of his neighbor. Jupiter's rings are thinner and weaker; most likely they consist of substances ejected by the giant's satellites during collisions with wandering asteroids and.
Moons of Jupiter
Jupiter has as many as 67 satellites, essentially more than all other planets in the solar system. The satellites of Jupiter are of great interest to scientists, as among them there are such large specimens that their size exceeds some small planets (like “not planets”), which also have significant reserves of groundwater.
Rotation of Jupiter
One year on Jupiter lasts 11.86 Earth years. It is during this period of time that Jupiter makes one revolution around the Sun. The speed of the planet Jupiter's orbit is 13 km per second. Jupiter's orbit is slightly tilted (about 6.09 degrees) compared to the plane of the ecliptic.
How long does it take to fly to Jupiter?
How long is the flight to Jupiter from Earth? When Earth and Jupiter are closest to each other, they are 628 million kilometers apart. How long will it take modern spaceships to cover this distance? Launched by NASA back in 1979, the Voyager 1 research shuttle took 546 days to fly to Jupiter. For Voyager 2, a similar flight took 688 days.
- Despite its truly gigantic size, Jupiter is also the fastest planet in the solar system in terms of rotation around its axis, so to make one revolution around its axis it will take only 10 of our hours, so a day on Jupiter is equal to 10 hours.
- Clouds on Jupiter can be up to 10 km thick.
- Jupiter has an intense magnetic field that is 16 times stronger than the Earth's magnetic field.
- It is quite possible to see Jupiter with your own eyes, and most likely you have seen it more than once, you just didn’t know that it was Jupiter. If you see a large and bright star in the starry night sky, then most likely it is him.
Planet Jupiter, video
And finally, an interesting documentary about Jupiter.
1. This is a completely new frame: The image was taken by Juno in 2018, and then carefully processed on Earth by scientists Gerald Eichstad and Sain Doran. The photo was taken during the 13th flyby around the planet at a distance of 15,500 kilometers from the top of the clouds.
2. And this image was transmitted by Juno to Earth a little earlier - in December 2017, during the 10th flyby around the planet. It took specialists about a month to study and process the resulting photographs.
3. Juno is approaching Jupiter and transmits new images approximately every 53 days, and moves at speeds of up to 209,000 kilometers per hour.
4. On July 10, 2017, the Juno spacecraft captured this image on its 7th flyby at a distance of 13,917 kilometers. The image of the Great Red Spot was processed by Bjorn Jonsson: this is the largest atmospheric vortex in the Solar System, which has always attracted special attention from researchers. Speed winds inside the spot are more than 500 kilometers per hour.
5. The image of the Little Red Spot was taken in February 2017 during a Juno flyby at a distance of 14,500 kilometers.
6. Another achievement of the Juno apparatus, the image was taken in July 2017. Of course, it is worth paying tribute to the specialists involved in processing visual data. But, nevertheless, it cannot be denied: the processes occurring in the atmosphere of Jupiter truly amazing with its beauty.
7. And this amazing photo was received by Juno in May 2017. Specialists had to work hard to process the raw data and turn it into a work of art. In the image the famous string of pearls is clearly visible, formed by several storms in the atmosphere of Jupiter.
8. Finally, let us remind you that it was not only the Juno spacecraft that managed to surprise earthlings with images of the gas giant. In 2000, the Cassini interplanetary station, launched into space to study Saturn, flew past Jupiter, transmitting images of the planet to Earth. This photo is one of those.
