How Many Earths Can Fit In Jupiter and Jupiter’s Red Spot?

Published on January 12, 2017 at 8:58 am by Ty Haqqi in Lists

Did you ever wonder how many Earths can fit in Jupiter and Jupiter’s red spot? Or did I just hear you say why in the world does this matter? How does it affect my life in any way? Well, truth be told, it doesn’t. Knowing more about Jupiter is unlikely to have any significant impact on your life unless the girl you like has an unhealthy obsession with the planet. But it’s so cool to learn such facts!

Space is absolutely fascinating. I think the most amazing thing about space is how little we know about it. Since it is so incredibly vast, we still haven’t come close to exploring even one percent. It’s amazing to think about a never ending expanse where everything is silent since sound can’t travel.

While we consider Earth to be huge, host to over 7 billion people, it is actually a dot in our galaxy. There could be thousands of galaxies in our universe. If you are interested in more on this topic, don’t miss reading about the 10 Biggest Galaxies in the Universe. Nevertheless, there could be an infinite number of universes as well. These facts really emphasize how insignificant we are. Earth isn’t even the largest planet in our solar system. That accolade belongs to Jupiter. But, let’s try to find an answer to how many Earths can fit in Jupiter and Jupiter’s red spot?

How large is Jupiter?

In one word, very. Not only is Jupiter the largest planet, larger than all the other planets in our solar system combined. This massive size has helped it earned the the nickname “King of Planets.” With a radius of nearly 70,000 kilometers, the mass of the planet is over two and a half times larger than of all the other planets in our solar system together. Jupiter was discovered in either the 7th or 8th century by Babylonians, though more facts regarding the planet would not be learned until much later.

Despite its size, the planet has the shortest day among any planets in our solar system, lasting just 9 hours and 55 minutes. However, its year is much longer than ours, as it takes Jupiter 11.8 years to completely rotate around the sun.

An interesting fact that you might not know about Jupiter is that it also has three rings. However, unlike Saturn, which is famous for its rings, Jupiter’s rings aren’t exactly easily visible, which is why they have not become as enduring a legend as those belonging to Saturn,

The reason we can’t live on Jupiter is due to the fact that its atmosphere is massive, and is composed mainly of hydrogen, hence lacking the essential elements we need to breathe. Meanwhile, the core of Jupiter is composed of metal, ice, and rocks. Good thing it doesn’t have oil or the US would have already invaded it.

How many Earths can fit inside Jupiter?

Now, let’s answer the first question out of these two – how many Earths can fit in Jupiter and Jupiter’s red spot? For the question that has plagued the mind of many, we used NASA to answer this question, which, as you may know, has data about everything related to space and is paid to figure out these sort of things. We also used Universe Today to determine the number of Earths that can be placed in Jupiter. If you take the radius of Jupiter and compare it with the radius of Earth, then 11 Earths could be fit inside Jupiter. However, the densities of both planets are pretty different, so volume would be a better indicator of this question. Both Nasa and Universe Today determined that if the volume was the criterion on which the question was to be answered, an astounding 1300 Earths could fit inside the planet Jupiter.

What is the Red Spot and how many Earths can fit inside it?

To answer this how many Earths can fit in Jupiter and Jupiter’s red spot, we first have to determine what the Red spot is? The Great Red Spot is an anticyclonic storm which has been raging for at least 187 years, while other estimates suggest it could be longer than 350 years. The reason the age cannot be determined accurately is that while a red spot was discovered in the 17th century, we are not sure whether this was the same storm or a different one. While such a storm would be impossible to think of or achieve on Earth, it is a common sight in gas giants such as Jupiter. Just like all things on Jupiter, this storm was massive as well. In fact, according to Nasa, three Earths can fit inside this storm, which has clouds of various colors, indicating that the clouds are present on various altitudes. Imagine that! A storm the size of three Earths. Now that would make for an excellent movie.