Jupiter Explained: Amazing Facts About the Solar System's Biggest Planet

I was going to call this post Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Jupiter* but then I wondered if I was writing to a certain demographic a little too much. Regardless, this wonderful video from BBC Earth Science outlines many amazing facts about the biggest planet of our solar system (yes, it might mention that too). For me, the most bizarre fact about Jupiter is that it is made mostly of hydrogen and helium, much like the Sun. But travel deep enough beneath its spectacular cloud bands and something extraordinary happens. The pressure becomes so immense that hydrogen is squeezed into an exotic liquid state in which it conducts electricity like a metal. Scientists call it metallic hydrogen. This enormous, electrically conducting layer is thought to help generate Jupiter's incredibly powerful magnetic field. There are so many other questions… how did Jupiter form? Why (oh why oh why) does it have so many moons? Plus, because of its ginormity, what role did it play in the…

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