What They Didn’t Teach You About Jupiter in School!

Big, bigger, the gigantic Jupiter: With a diameter of almost 140,000 kilometers, the “king of our planetary system” is so large that the Earth would theoretically fit into it over 1,300 times! In the same breath, the enormous gas giant is about 2.5 times more massive than all the other seven planets in the solar system combined. But did you know that the planetary colossus is a real Speedy Gonzales despite all this? In fact, Jupiter only needs a little less than 10 hours to rotate around its own axis, making it the fastest rotating planet in our home world. But aside from its captivating beauty, Jupiter is also the scene of colossal storms and deadly radiation. What secrets lie hidden beneath its dense bands of clouds? What do we know about the Great Red Spot, which is larger than Earth and whips across the planet's outer layers at a crazy speed of up to 680 km/h? And above all: how could our own planet never have come into existence if Jupiter hadn't been rampaging through the solar system like a crazed berserker?