Welcome to Jupiter! The largest planet in our solar system is just that… large! So large that not one, not two, but 1,300 Earths could fit inside it. So yeah, large.
So, what would it be like to visit the massive and mysterious Jupiter?
Jupiter is a gas giant, meaning there isn’t a surface for us to land on. So we can’t actually stand on Jupiter. In reality, we’re not really sure what’s at the center of Jupiter. Our best guess is some kind of core, probably made up of iron and other materials, that’s not quite a gas and not quite a solid. It would be superheated, as in 50,000 degrees, so landing there is pretty much out of the question.
While it’s hot at the center, Jupiter is actually cold in its the outer edges. As you arrive and began moving through the outer atmosphere, you’d find yourself amongst ice made of ammonia. But it wouldn’t be just static ice, you’d be buffeted by winds that can swirl at more than 300 miles an hour. By comparison, a Category 5 hurricane on Earth has winds around 150 miles an hour. There is, of course, Jupiter’s famous Great Red Spot. The spot is a massive storm, twice the size of Earth, that has raged for at least 300 years.
Getting through the outer layers of Jupiter would be made even more dangerous by the intense magnetic field that envelopes the planet. You would die a pretty horrible death just from the radiation you’d experience.
As you flew deeper into Jupiter’s atmosphere, the temperature and pressure would increase. You’d have your choice of being suffocated and poisoned by the gas, crushed by the pressure, torn apart by the winds, or incinerated by the heat. But as all of this was happening to you, you could marvel at the fact that, despite its size, Jupiter actually has the shortest day in the entire solar system, only about 10 hours long. You might also catch a glimpse of the spectacular aurorae light shows at the poles. That is, if your eyeballs hadn’t been melted and squished by then.
Probably a smarter bet than trying to visit Jupiter itself is visiting one of its moons. Jupiter has over 50 confirmed moons, with many more that may yet be officially added to that total. Its four most famous moons are Ganymede, Io, Callisto and Europa.
Ganymede is the largest, while Io has tremendous volcanic activity and Callisto has massive cratering. It’s Europa that intrigues scientists most. Europa is covered in ice that is believed to surround a water ocean. Somewhere in that ocean, there may be a habitable zone where life could exist. For an entertaining scifi flick about a trip to Europa, check out the underrated Europa Report from 2013. I don’t know how much of it is based on science, but hey, you never know.