Jupiter Facts for Kids

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The Fifth Planet

Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet in the solar system. Jupiter is the third-brightest object in the night sky, after the Moon and Venus, and can be seen with the naked eye. Jupiter was named after the Roman god of the same name.

Jupiter Quick Facts

	Jupiter	Earth
Type of Planet	Gas Giant	Terrestrial
Moons	Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, and at least 63 others	The Moon
Rings	Rings of Jupiter	None
Mass	1.899 × 10²⁷ kg	5.972 × 10²⁴ kg
Volume	1.431 × 10¹⁵ km³	1,083,000,000,000 km³
Closest Distance to Sun	740,600,000 km	147,100,000 km
Furthest Distance from Sun	816,500,000 km	152,100,000 km
Average Orbital Speed	47,050 kph	107,200 kph

Cool Facts About Jupiter for Kids

Most of Jupiter's moons are less than 5 km across.
Of Jupiter's moons discovered so far, 55 of them are less than 5 km in diameter, or about 15.7 km in circumference. Assuming 15 minutes per km, and of course ignoring the effects of gravity (and the fact that there wouldn't be any air) a person could walk around one of these moons in about 235.5 minutes— just under 4 hours.
Jupiter is twice as massive as all of the other planets in the solar system, combined.
With a mass of 1.899 × 10²⁷, Jupiter has the mass of about 318 planet Earths, or twice the mass of all of the other planets, combined.
Over 1,000 Earths could fit inside Jupiter.
Jupiter is, by far, the largest planet in the solar system. It has a diameter 11 times larger than the Earth, and could fit just about 1,317 Earths inside of it, by volume. Saturn, the runner up, has about half this volume.
You'd weigh about 253% as much on Jupiter as you do on Earth.
Because Jupiter is so massive, it has a much stronger gravitational pull than Earth. You'd weigh just over 2.5 times your Earth weight on Jupiter.