7 Reasons Why Jupiter is The Best Planet

Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Each of these planets have something which sets it apart from the others. Jupiter is without a doubt the best planet, and here are 7 reasons why:

7. Great Red Spot

space.com

#10 on the list is the signature of Jupiter; one look at the spot and you know it's the gas giant. This "spot" is more like a gigantic hurricane that has been going on for at least 4 centuries, and models support the evidence that it has many more to go. The enormity of the storm is mind-blowing – it could fit about 3 Earths inside of it, or to put it into perspective: it could fit (from the long way) approximately 2,600 elephants.

That's one trip they won't soon forget.

6. The Best Bodyguard

science.howstuffworks.com

Take note dance clubs, this guy has been keeping the Earth safe for about 4 billion years. The gravitational influence that Jupiter has on the solar system makes the asteroid belt take the shape of a belt, instead of letting them all drift in whichever direction they please (with respect to the other planet's gravitational influence.)

Of course no one is perfect, and it has let in some asteroids towards the direction of Earth. Most notably, the one which annihilated the dinosaurs making way for mammals (and eventually humans) to take over. So was it that bad of a mistake? You be the judge.

5. It's What's On the Inside That Counts

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The inside of Jupiter is truly unique to Jupiter and Saturn (but because Jupiter has more mass, the effect is better on Jupiter.) Gas begins as gas does, all . . . gassy. Flying around as we are familiar. As we go deeper into Jupiter, gas starts to pile up on top of more gas.

Ever go down to the bottom of a pool? Did you notice how your ears started to hurt? It's due to the water pressure being exerted on your delicate eardrums.

Well, same effect here, but because it's literally hundreds of tons of gas, the effect would crush you. As we go deeper, gas stops becoming gas as we know it, and becomes more of a liquid.

Now as we go deeper still, the liquid hydrogen comes under even more pressure until the electrons are ripped apart and start to flow freely. This liquid is now behaving like a metal. It's called metal liquid hydrogen. Which most likely is responsible for the enormous magnetic field that Jupiter produced. That's some cool ass sh!t.

4. Jupiter Has the Coolest Moons

lasp.colorado.edu

The 4 biggest moons of Jupiter all probably land in the "Top 10 Moons of the Solar System" list (except for boring Callisto.) In fact, this list is going to contain another list of the coolest of Galilean Moons:

• 4. Callisto - Boring really. MAYBE contains some liquid water, but scientists are skeptical as conditions do not favor it as much as Europa.

• 3. Io - The most geologically active object in the solar system. With over 400 volcanoes, it's not hard to see how it got that title.

• 2. Ganymede - The largest moon in the entire solar system, and is actually 8% larger than Mercury. It's also large enough to form a magnetosphere, the only moon to do so.

• 1. Europa - If there's going to be life outside of Earth, many place their bets on the tiny of the 4 biggest moons of Jupiter. The moon places tidal forces on the Earth, but the moon is tiny. Now imagine your neighbor is Jupiter and the tidal forces increase exponentially. Scientists believe that the tidal forces and radiation that comes from Jupiter is able to heat the ice enough to create an entire liquid ocean inside of Europa. And where there is water . . . there may be life.

3. Galileo Proved We Are Not Special (By Observing Jupiter)

Yep, Galileo used the powers of his telescope and observation to prove to the world that we are not special; Earth is not the only planet with moons. And for his reward the institution, in-charge at the time, put him in a prison cell for his "radical thoughts."

We know now, because of his (and others') observations, that we are actually not that special at all. Almost every planet in our solar system has moons, many stars actually have planets orbiting them, and we are not the only planet in the so-called "Goldilocks Zone." All of these discoveries made possible by thinking outside of the box, and opening our minds to even greater possibilities in our Universe.

2. Mini-Solar System

upload.wikimedia.org

This planet is basically a mini-solar system. And if you keep reading you'll learn why it almost is. I say "mini" in terms of size, not quantity. Jupiter's mini-solar system is small compared to our solar system, but Jupiter has at least 67 moons orbiting around it! That's a lot of baby-daddies. The only planet with more moons than Jupiter is Saturn (with a staggering 150 moon/moonlettes), but we'll forgive her because Saturn at least has a ring around it. Jupiter plays by its own rules.

(pictured above are only some of the moons)

1. Size Does Count

space.com

Jupiter is not only the largest planet in terms of volume, but it's the largest in terms of mass! Jupiter is so massive that if you were to take all of the planets, then take them all again and combine them into a super-planet, Jupiter would be even more massive still. Jupiter has about 2.5 times the mass of all the planets.

It's composed of nearly all hydrogen, like the sun. It influences nearly all things in the solar system, like the sun. And it has its own solar system, like the sun. In fact, if it was only 80 times more massive, it would be massive enough to start nuclear fusion and become a star. Meaning that we would have a 2nd sun, and we would be staring out into a sunrise like Skywalker did on Tatooine.