Gas Giant

Jupiter.

The giant: more than twice the mass of every other planet combined, wrapped in storms older than telescopes.

Jupiter right now

From Earth right now: 874,894,932 km
Its light reaches us after: 48 min 38.3 s
From the Sun: 793,845,684 km
Speed around the Sun: 12.80 km/s
Around its orbit: 31% of the way from perihelion

Worked out in your browser from JPL's orbital elements, the same maths that moves the planets in the 3D viewer. How far Jupiter is from Earth right now, with miles, AU and the next close approach.

Overview

Jupiter at a glance

Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system — a gas giant with more than twice the mass of all the other planets combined and a diameter of 139,820 km. Its banded cloud structure rotates faster than any other planet (one rotation every 9h 56m), driving the jet streams that produce the bands and the centuries-old storm called the Great Red Spot. Jupiter has 101 confirmed moons as of March 2026, including the four Galilean satellites visible in any small telescope.

Diameter: 139,820 km
From the Sun: 778.5M km
Year: 11.86 years
Axial tilt: 3.13°
Moons: 101
Type: Gas Giant

Size, to scale

Atmosphere

Clouds without end

90% hydrogen, 10% helium, with traces of methane, ammonia, and water. The visible cloud bands sit in the upper troposphere — light "zones" of rising ammonia ice and dark "belts" of descending material. Wind speeds reach 400 km/h. Jupiter radiates 1.6× more energy than it receives from the Sun, leftover heat from its formation.

Seen edge on, along the line between day and night.

Surface

No surface to stand on

Jupiter has no surface in any meaningful sense. Falling inward, the gaseous atmosphere gradually compresses into a supercritical fluid, then into a layer of metallic hydrogen — hydrogen squeezed so hard that electrons free themselves and the substance conducts electricity like a metal.

A close pass, stopped where the surface map runs out of detail.

Interior

Inside Jupiter

A small rocky / icy core (more dilute than once thought, per Juno data) surrounded by metallic hydrogen, then liquid hydrogen, then the gaseous envelope. The metallic hydrogen layer drives the most powerful planetary magnetic field in the solar system — 14× Earth's at the cloud tops.

Formation

How it formed

Likely formed by core accretion within the protoplanetary disc 4.5 billion years ago, growing massive enough to capture huge amounts of hydrogen and helium directly from the disc gas before that gas dispersed.

Orbit

Where Jupiter is today

Average distance from the Sun: 778.5 million km (5.20 AU). Orbital period 11.86 years. Low orbital eccentricity (0.049) and a small 3.13° tilt.

Sunlight takes

44 min 8.0 s

to reach Jupiter, and its reflected light needs 48 min 38.3 s more to reach us.

Moons

Jupiter's major moons

Missions

Who has been to look

1979Voyager 1 & 2Past flyby
Discovered Jupiter's rings and the active volcanism on Io.
1995–2003GalileoPast
First Jupiter orbiter; deployed an atmospheric probe.
2016–JunoActive
Polar orbit gathering data on the deep interior, magnetic field, and auroras.
2023 / 2024JUICE / Europa ClipperEn route
ESA's JUICE and NASA's Europa Clipper are both en route to study the icy moons; Clipper arrives 2030.

Go further

See it for yourself

Questions

Asked about Jupiter

Could Jupiter become a star?

No. It would need roughly 80× more mass to fuse hydrogen.

How many moons does Jupiter have?

101 confirmed as of March 2026, and counting. Most are small irregular bodies.

Does Jupiter have rings?

Yes, but they are faint and made of dust kicked up by micrometeoroid impacts on the inner moons.

Other bodies

Sources & methodology

Numbers cross-referenced with the sources below; surface and atmosphere descriptions reflect findings as of October 2026. Renderings in the 3D viewer use textures based on Solar System Scope and NASA imagery.