FIND IT TONIGHT · BANGKOK
Jupiter in numbers
- 11.2 × Earth
- Width
- 9 h 56 min
- One day
- 11.9 years
- One year
- 101
- Known moons, as of March 2026.
- 9 h 56 m
- One day, the shortest of any planet.
- Wider than Earth
- The Great Red Spot, a storm watched for over 150 years.
WORTH KNOWING
Four of its moons are visible with ordinary binoculars.
Galileo spotted Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto in 1610. Hold binoculars steady and you can see them as tiny points lined up beside Jupiter.
Europa hides a salty ocean under its ice, one of the best places to look for life beyond Earth.
Who has been there
- 1973Pioneer 10First spacecraft to fly past Jupiter.
- 1995–2003GalileoFirst to orbit Jupiter; dropped a probe into its clouds.
- 2016 →JunoOrbiting over the poles to study the interior.
- 2030 →Europa Clipper and JUICEOn their way to Jupiter's icy moons.