Jupiter
By hema1984
@hema1984 (13)
India
4 responses
@working4theweekend (2403)
• United States
21 Dec 06
Jupiter is about 11x the size of earth in diameter! The diameter of Jupiter is 142,984 km.
Jupiter and the other gas giants—Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune—are sometimes referred to as "Jovian planets".
Jupiter is an oblate spheroid, meaning that the diameter across its equator is longer than the diameter measured between its poles. On Jupiter, the equatorial diameter is 9275 km longer than the diameter measured through the poles. This is caused by Jupiter's rapid rotation which causes the equator to bulge outward.
Jupiter is thought to have about as large a diameter as a planet of its composition can; adding extra mass would cause the planet to shrink due to increased gravitational compression. The process of further shrinkage with increasing mass would continue until stellar ignition was achieved. This has led some astronomers to term it a "failed star".