Mass of Jupiter
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| Bibliographic Entry | Result (w/surrounding text) |
Standardized Result |
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| Chaissan, Eric, and Steve Macmillan. Astronomy Today.Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall 1993: 192. |
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1.90 × 1027 kg | ||||||||||||||
| Johnson, Torrence V., Lucy-Ann McFadden, and Paul P. Weissman. "Jupiter." Encyclopedia of the Solar System. London: Academic Press, 1999. |
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1.899 × 1027 kg | ||||||||||||||
| Gregory, Stephen, and Michael Zelik. Introductory Astronomy and Astrophysics. Orlando, FL: Sanders, 1998: 101. | "The equatorial radius (11.19 Ro) and mass (318 Mo) of Jupiter have been accurately determined by observing the orbits and occultations of its moons, by measuring the angular diameter of its visible disk (47° at opposition), and by Voyager flyby measurements." | 1.90 × 1027 kg | ||||||||||||||
| Morse, Joseph L. "Jupiter." Funk and Wagnall's New Encyclopedia. 1973. | "The volume of Jupiter is approximately 1300 times that of the earth; because its mass is nearly 317 times that of earth, its mean density is one fourth that of the earth, or 1.4 times that of water." | 1.896 × 1027 kg | ||||||||||||||
| Jupiter. Enchanted Learning Software. 1999. | "Jupiter's mass is about 1.9 × 10^27kg" | 1.90 × 1027 kg |
Jupiter is the fifth and largest planet in our solar system. It is also one of the brightest planets, second to Venus. Jupiter is composed mostly of gas. It has a thick atmosphere, 17 moons, and a dark, barely-visible ring. Some of Jupiter's most prominent features include a great red spot and bands across its latitudes. The large, oval spot, the so-called great Red Spot, is about 8,700 miles wide and 25,000 miles long. The spot is definitely known to have been observed in 1878, but was probably seen at an earlier date. Jupiter is flattened at the poles, with its polar diameter being 82,900 miles, and the equatorial diameter 88,700 miles. The equatorial diameter of Jupiter is a little more than 11 times the diameter of the Earth. The volume is approximately 1300 times that of the earth. In fact, Jupiter is so big that all the other planets in our solar system could fit comfortably inside Jupiter.
In most sources, the mass of Jupiter has been found to be approximately 1.9 × 1027 kg, or is equivalent to approximately 318 Earth masses. Although this is 318 times the mass of Earth, the gravity of Jupiter is only 254% of the gravity on Earth. The reason for this is the fact that gravitational force of a planet exerts upon an object at the planet's surface is proportional to its mass and to the inverse of its radius squared and Jupiter is a large planet.
Lillian Lee -- 2002
| Bibliographic Entry | Result (w/surrounding text) |
Standardized Result |
|---|---|---|
| Beichner, Robert J., Jewett, John J., Serway, Raymond H. Physics for Scientists and Engineers. New York: Saunders College, 2000. | "Jupiter: 1.9 × 1027 kg" | 1.9 × 1027 kg |
| "Jupiter." The World Book. Millennium 2000. Chicago: World book Inc. 2000. | "Its [Jupiter's] mass is 318 times larger than that of earth" | 1.9 × 1027 kg |
| Watters, Thomas R. Smithsonian Guides: Planets. New York, Macmillan USA, 1995. | "Jupiter: 317.9"Where the units is the mass of earth" | 1.9 × 1027 kg |
| "Solar System." Young Students Encyclopedia. USA: Xerox Corporation 1977. | "Mass(E=1): Jupiter = 318.0" | 1.9 × 1027 kg |
| Stott, Carole. New Astronomer. New York: DK publishing, 1999. | "Jupiter: Mass(Earth=1):318" | 1.9 × 1027 kg |
The mass of an object is the quantity of matter the object is composed of. One way to determine the mass of a planet is use the orbits of its satellites. To do this one finds the angular separation between the satellite and the planet, and the corresponding physical distance between the satellite and the planet. Then a graph is made of the position of the satellite with respect to the time elapsed from the initial observation. From the graph, one can determine the mass of the planet.
Jupiter is the fifth and largest planet in our solar system. It was named after Jupiter, who is related to the Greek god Zeus. The mass of Jupiter has been calculated to be 1.9 × 1027 kg, which is 318 times greater than the mass of Earth. The density of Jupiter however is only 1.33 times that of water which is 24% that of the Earth. Jupiter's density is believed to be so low because it is mainly composed of hydrogen and helium — the lightest elements. Jupiter's atmosphere is comprised of 86% hydrogen, and 14% helium with trace amounts of methane, ammonia, phosphate, water, acetylene, ethane, germanium, and carbon monoxide. The atmosphere is what gives Jupiter the colorful tinted clouds at different levels of its atmosphere. Jupiter have an orbital period that is 11.862 Earth years, while the time it takes to rotate is 9.864 hours and is the smallest of all the planets. The planet has a diameter of 1.43 × 108 km.
David Engel -- 2002
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