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Friday, May 20, 2016

JUPITER PLANET - How Long Does it Take Jupiter to Orbit the Sun?

How Long Does it Take Jupiter to Orbit the Sun?:

When it comes to the other planets that make up our Solar System, some pretty stark differences become apparent. In addition to being different in terms of their sizes, composition and atmospheres from Earth, they also differ considerably in terms of their orbits. Whereas those closest to the Sun have rapid transits, and therefore comparatively short years, those farther away can take many Earth to complete a single orbit.

This is certainly the case when it comes to Jupiter, the Solar System largest and most massive planet. Given its considerable distance from the Sun, Jupiter spends the equivalent of almost twelve Earth years completing a single circuit of our Sun. Orbiting at this distance is part of what allows Jupiter to maintain its gaseous nature, and led to its formation and peculiar composition.

Orbit and Resonance:

Jupiter orbits the Sun at an average distance (semi-major axis) of 778,299,000 km (5.2 AU), ranging from 740,550,000 km (4.95 AU) at perihelion and 816,040,000 km (5.455 AU) at aphelion. At this distance, Jupiter takes 11.8618 Earth years to complete a single orbit of the Sun. In other words, a single Jovian year lasts the equivalent of 4,332.59 Earth days.

https://youtu.be/pnHc_87A7_U

However, Jupiter's rotation is the fastest of all the Solar System's planets, completing a rotation on its axis in slightly less than ten hours (9 hours, 55 minutes and 30 seconds to be exact. Therefore, a single Jovian year lasts 10,475.8 Jovian solar days. This orbital period is two-fifths that of Saturn, which means that the two largest planets in our Solar System form a 5:2 orbital resonance.

Seasonal Changes:

With an axial tilt of just 3.13 degrees, Jupiter also has one of the least inclined orbits of any planet in the Solar System. Only Mercury and Venus have more vertical axes, with a tilt of 0.03° and 2.64° respectively. As a result, Jupiter does not experience seasonal changes the way the other planets do - particularly Earth (23.44°), Mars (25.19°) and Saturn (26.73°).

As a result, temperatures do not vary considerably between the northern or southern hemispheres during the course of its orbit. Measurements taken from the top of Jupiter’s clouds (which is considered to be the surface) indicate that surface temperatures vary between 165 K and 112 K (-108 °C and -161 °C). However, temperatures vary considerably due to depth, increasing drastically as one ventures closer to the core.

Formation:

Jupiter's composition and position in the Solar System are interrelated. According to Nebular Theory, the Sun and all the planets of our Solar System began as a giant cloud of molecular gas and dust (called a solar nebula). Then, about 4.57 billion years ago, something happened that caused the cloud to collapse, which could have been the result of anything from a passing star to shock waves from a supernova.

From this collapse, pockets of dust and gas began to collect into denser regions. As the denser regions pulled in more and more matter, conservation of momentum caused them to begin rotating, while increasing pressure caused them to heat up. Since temperatures across this protoplanetary disk were not uniform, this caused different materials to condense at different temperatures, leading to different types of planets forming.

The dividing line for the different planets in our solar system is known as the "Frost Line", a point in the Solar System beyond which volatiles (such as water, ammonia, methane, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide) are able to exist in a frozen state. As a result, planets like Jupiter, which are located beyond the Frost Line, condensed out of denser materials first (like silicate rock and minerals), then were able to accumulate gases in a liquid state.

In addition to ensuring that Jupiter was able to become the massive gas giant it is today, its distance from the Sun is also what makes its orbital period much longer than that of Earth's.

We have written many articles about Jupiter here at Universe Today. Here's The Gas Giant Jupiter, Ten Interesting Facts About Jupiter, Jupiter Compared to Earth, How Long Does it Take to get to Jupiter?, Could We Terraform Jupiter?

If you'd like more information on Jupiter, check out Hubblesite's News Releases about Jupiter. And here's an article about Jupiter on the NASA Solar System Exploration Guide.

We have also recorded an episode of Astronomy Cast about Jupiter. You can listen here, Episode 56: Jupiter.

The post How Long Does it Take Jupiter to Orbit the Sun? appeared first on Universe Today.

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NASA Photos Photography

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is the United States government agency responsible for the civilian space program as well as aeronautics and aerospace research. President Dwight D. Eisenhower established the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 1958 with a distinctly civilian (rather than military) orientation encouraging peaceful applications in space science. The National Aeronautics and Space Act was passed on July 29, 1958, disestablishing NASA's predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). The new agency became operational on October 1, 1958.

UFO SIGHTINGS PHOTO PHOTOGRAPHY

The Oxford English Dictionary defines a UFO as "An unidentified flying object; a 'flying saucer'." The first published book to use the word was authored by Donald E. Keyhoe. The acronym "UFO" was coined by Captain Edward J. Ruppelt, who headed Project Blue Book, then the USAF's official investigation of UFOs. He wrote, "Obviously the term 'flying saucer' is misleading when applied to objects of every conceivable shape and performance. For this reason the military prefers the more general, if less colorful, name: unidentified flying objects. UFO (pronounced Yoo-foe) for short." Other phrases that were used officially and that predate the UFO acronym include "flying flapjack", "flying disc", "unexplained flying discs", "unidentifiable object", and "flying saucer". The phrase "flying saucer" had gained widespread attention after the summer of 1947. On June 24, a civilian pilot named Kenneth Arnold reported seeing nine objects flying in formation near Mount Rainier. Arnold timed the sighting and estimated the speed of discs to be over 1,200 mph (1,931 km/h). At the time, he described the objects' shape as being somewhat disc-like or saucer-like, leading to newspaper accounts of "flying saucers" and "flying discs". In popular usage the term UFO came to be used to refer to claims of alien spacecraft. and because of the public and media ridicule associated with the topic, some investigators prefer to use such terms as unidentified aerial phenomenon (or UAP) or anomalous phenomena, as in the title of the National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena (NARCAP).

UFO PHOTO PHOTOGRAPHY

UFO - Unidentified Flying Object An unidentified flying object, or UFO, in its most general definition, is any apparent anomaly in the sky that is not identifiable as a known object or phenomenon. Culturally, UFOs are associated with claims of visitation by extraterrestrial life or government-related conspiracy theories, and have become popular subjects in fiction. While UFOs are often later identified, sometimes identification may not be possible owing to the usually low quality of evidence related to UFO sightings (generally anecdotal evidence and eyewitness accounts). Stories of fantastical celestial apparitions have been told since antiquity, but the term "UFO" (or "UFOB") was officially created in 1953 by the United States Air Force (USAF) to serve as a catch-all for all such reports. In its initial definition, the USAF stated that a "UFOB" was "any airborne object which by performance, aerodynamic characteristics, or unusual features, does not conform to any presently known aircraft or missile type, or which cannot be positively identified as a familiar object." Accordingly, the term was initially restricted to that fraction of cases which remained unidentified after investigation, as the USAF was interested in potential national security reasons and/or "technical aspects" (see Air Force Regulation 200-2). During the late 1940s and through the 1950s, UFOs were often referred to popularly as "flying saucers" or "flying discs". The term UFO became more widespread during the 1950s, at first in technical literature, but later in popular use. UFOs garnered considerable interest during the Cold War, an era associated with a heightened concern for national security. Various studies have concluded that the phenomenon does not represent a threat to national security nor does it contain anything worthy of scientific pursuit (e.g., 1951 Flying Saucer Working Party, 1953 CIA Robertson Panel, USAF Project Blue Book, Condon Committee).