JUPITER Dominating the Solar System

Find all the latest news on Jupiter's moons, including the search for life on Europa, here.

Latest News About Jupiter

Exotic rain drenches Jupiter

March 23, 2024

Where the droplets are forming, the temperature is 5,000 °C, and the pressure is 2 million times Earth’s surface pressure Read more

This 12-panel series of Hubble Space Telescope images, taken Jan. 5-6, 2024, presents snapshots of a full rotation of the giant planet Jupiter

Hubble spies stormy weather and a shrinking Great Red Spot (video)

March 15, 2024

It seems that the extra solar heating of Jovian summer is still stirring up its atmosphere Read more

This image of Jupiter was captured by NASA's Juno spacecraft during its close flyby of the gas giant on Sept. 7, 2023

Juno spacecraft spotted a mysterious phenomenon buried beneath Jupiter’s atmosphere

March 6, 2024

This could help explain how the universe itself functions Read more

Images of Jupiter taken by NASA's Juno spacecraft

Spot the King of Planets: Observe Jupiter

February 15, 2024

Jupiter is bright and easy to spot from our vantage point on Earth Read more

This false-color image reveals new details of Jupiter’s atmosphere. A thick band of clouds circles the equator

Jupiter has a never-before-seen jet stream — and it’s speedy

December 18, 2023

This high-altitude current may help untangle what’s happening above planets’ equators Read more

The bright flash is a bolide - a shooting star in the atmosphere of Jupiter

Object smacks Jupiter and explodes, space footage shows

November 18, 2023

The bright flash is a bolide - a shooting star in the atmosphere of Jupiter Read more

NASA’s Juno captured this view of Jupiter during the mission’s 54th close flyby of the giant planet on Sept. 7

NASA’s Juno finds Jupiter’s winds penetrate in cylindrical layers

November 9, 2023

The finding offers deeper insights into the long-debated internal structure of the gas giant Read more

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope reveals an ultraviolet view of Jupiter

Jupiter's Great Red Spot turns blue in new ultraviolet view from Hubble Telescope

November 3, 2023

Viewing Jupiter in ultraviolet light really brings out the planet's storms Read more

NASA shared this image of clouds and storms on Jupiter that resemble a face

NASA shares image of spooky ‘face’ on Jupiter

October 31, 2023

JunoCam captured an image that looks like something from The Twilight Zone Read more

NASA's JWST discovers new feature in Jupiter's atmosphere

October 19, 2023

A narrow jet stream near equator has winds traveling 320 miles per hour Read more

A fireball observed on Jupiter, captured by amateur astronomer Tadao Ohsugi last month

A fireball whacked into Jupiter, and astronomers got it on video

September 15, 2023

Scientists want to use data like this to study our Solar System’s birth Read more

A cyclone raging close to Jupiter's north pole, as imaged by NASA's Juno on Sept. 7, 2023

Cyclone rages on Jupiter in jaw-dropping new images from Juno

September 14, 2023

It's nicknamed “Cyclone Bindi” by citizen scientist Navaneeth Krishnan S, who processed it Read more

Juno took this image 14,600 miles (23,500 km) above the planet's cloud tops

NASA's Juno shares stunning close-up images of Jupiter and its storms

August 29, 2023

Internet users flooded the comment section with lovestruck and fire emojis Read more

An SwRI-led team identified intermittent evidence of Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities, giant swirling waves, at the boundary between Jupiter’s magnetosphere and the solar wind that fills interplanetary space

NASA probe finds giant swirling waves in Jupiter's magnetosphere

July 27, 2023

They're not visible to the naked eye, but can be detected in observations of plasma Read more

The JunoCam instrument captured this look at bands of high-altitude haze forming above cyclones

NASA's Juno mission observes high-altitude hazes in Jupiter's atmosphere

June 22, 2023

Bands of high-altitude haze form above cyclones Read more

NASA's Juno spacecraft captured this view of a lightning strike in the clouds near Jupiter's north pole on Dec. 30, 2020

Alien green flash: Lightning crackles in vortex near Jupiter's north pole

June 17, 2023

Citizen scientist Kevin Gill processed the image Read more

Two infrared images of Jupiter taken approximately 10 years apart

Why does Jupiter change its stripes? Scientists may finally have the answer

May 25, 2023

It has to do with shifts in Jupiter's magnetic field Read more

Lightning cavorts through Jupiter’s thunderclouds (illustrated) at a rhythm akin to bolts in Earth’s skies

Jupiter’s lightning bolts contort the same way as Earth’s

May 23, 2023

Collisions of water and ice might build electric charge on both planets Read more

A nascent, coruscant Jupiter may have vaporized water from the surfaces of its moons, Io (shown on the left) and Europa (right)

Baby Jupiter glowed so brightly it might have desiccated its moon

March 28, 2023

The findings could aid the search for icy moons orbiting exoplanets Read more

Inaugurated in 2014, the telescope's Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) Program has been providing us with yearly views of the giant planets

Hubble monitors changing weather and seasons at Jupiter and Uranus

March 23, 2023

Hubble's sensitivity keeps an eye on complex activities over time Read more

Infrared images of Jupiter taken in 2016 show cooler areas in blue and warmer areas in orange. (Image credit: ESO/L.N. Fletcher)

40-year research reveals puzzling patterns in Jupiter’s temperature

January 3, 2023

Data from NASA missions could help predict weather on Jupiter Read more

JunoCam took this image of Jupiter's northernmost cyclone (visible to the right along the bottom edge of image) on September 29, 2022. Credit: Image data: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSSImage processing by Navaneeth Krishnan S CC BY 3.0

NASA's Juno views northern cyclones on Jupiter

December 14, 2022

Jupiter's northernmost cyclone is visible to the right along the bottom edge of this image Read more

The Keck Planet Finder achieved first light on November 9, 2022 after capturing a spectrum of Jupiter

Why this puzzling new image Of Jupiter could help us find life beyond Earth

November 12, 2022

Astronomy is merely the study of light Read more

$The fraction of Jupiter’s aurora located on the nightside are only accessible to spacecrafts orbiting Jupiter$

The light show of Jupiter's dark side

November 3, 2022

The unique vantage point of NASA’s Juno spacecraft has revealed a new side to Jupiter’s auroras Read more

A panning-view of Jupiter’s upper atmospheric temperatures, 1000 kilometers above the cloud tops

Heatwave on Jupiter, from its aurora

October 3, 2022

It’s hundreds of degrees hotter than models predict Read more

This image from the Juno spacecraft shows the nine cyclones at Jupiter’s north pole in infrared

Scientists looked at nine cyclones swirling at Jupiter's north pole

September 26, 2022

Images from the Juno spacecraft revealed bizarre, organized storms on Jupiter Read more

NASA’s latest space telescope reveals stunning details in the gas giant’s cloud tops, aurorae, and faint rings

James Webb Space Telescope shows Jupiter in a new light

August 31, 2022

NASA’s latest space telescope reveals stunning details in the gas giant’s cloud tops, aurorae, and faint rings Read more

NASA's Juno spacecraft observed the complex colors and structure of Jupiter's clouds as it completed its 43rd close flyby of the giant planet on July 5, 2022

NASA's Juno mission reveals Jupiter's complex colors

August 30, 2022

Citizen scientist Björn Jónsson created these two images using raw data from the JunoCam instrument Read more

This isn’t Saturn, but Jupiter! The Galileo spacecraft imaged the rings in 1996 when the planet was backlit by the Sun and appears dark, so the faint rings could be seen

Why doesn’t Jupiter have even more spectacular rings than Saturn?

August 8, 2022

Jupiter is bigger and more massive, but Saturn puts it to shame Read more

A brilliant image of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot along with its violent southern hemisphere taken by NASA’s Juno spacecraft as it passed close to the gas giant planet

Jupiter missions could also help search for dark matter

August 6, 2022

Why do scientists continue to study this mysterious—and completely invisible—phenomena? Read more

Fascinating Facts About Jupiter

If the sun were as tall as a typical front door, the Earth would be the size of a nickel and Jupiter would be about as big as a basketball.
From Jupiter’s surface, the Sun appears about one-fifth as large as it does from Earth and sunlight appears about 27 times dimmer.
Jupiter spins on its axis in about 10 hours; this is the shortest spin time of any of the other planets.
Jupiter is two times more massive than all the other planets combined.
The planet’s magnetic field at the cloud tops is about 14 times stronger than Earth’s magnetic field measured at its surface.
Jupiter emits about 1.6 times the energy it receives from the Sun. This energy is thought to come from the continued cooling of the planet after its gravitational collapse during the formation of the solar system. Because of this, the weather on the planet is internally driven: it depends on the energy emitted by the planet itself. On the other hand, the weather on Earth is externally driven, by the sun.
If Jupiter was 80 times more massive than its current size, it would have become a star.
The Great Red Spot is a giant hurricane-like storm that has been monitored since 1830 but it has possibly existed for more than 350 years.

Missions

Juno (2011)
Mission to understand origin and evolution of Jupiter, look for solid planetary core, study magnetic field and atmosphere and observe auroras

Voyager 1 & 2 (1977)
Mission to explore Jupiter and Saturn, but later extended to Uranus and Neptune as well

Pioneer 10 & 11 (1972-1973)
Jupiter flyby and continued mission to explore the outer solar system

Galileo (1989)
Mission to study Jupiter and its moons