The Outer Planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune

The Outer Planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune — page 9
THE OUTER PLANETS JUPITER SATURN Uranus AND NEPTUNE asteroid belt and Earth Like the other outer planets Saturn Uranus and Neptune Jupiter is much larger and less dense than Earth and the other rocky inner planets SIZE Mass AND DENSITY Jupiter is named for the ruler of the ancient Roman gods the equivalent of the ancient Greek god Zeus The ancient Romans did not know how large the planet is but the name turned out to be fitting Jupiter encom passes more matter than all the other planets in the solar system combined Its diameter at the equator is some 88 846 miles 142 984 kilometers It is about 320 times as massive as Earth Jupiter s large mass produces strong gravitational effects on other members of the solar system It forms gaps for instance in the distribution of the asteroids in the main belt and changes the trajectory of comets The planet s density is very low only about 1 3 times that of water By comparison Earth is more than 55 times denser than water ORBIT AND SPIN Jupiter like all the other planets travels around the Sun in a slightly elliptical or 14