Planet Jupiter — Reading Comprehension Lesson

Reading Passage

Planet Jupiter

Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system by a wide margin. It is so large that all the other planets could fit inside it with room to spare, and it is about 11 times wider than Earth. Despite its enormous size, Jupiter rotates faster than any other planet — a day on Jupiter lasts only about 10 hours, which causes it to bulge noticeably at the equator. Jupiter is a gas giant composed primarily of hydrogen and helium with no solid surface. Its atmosphere is divided into colorful bands of clouds called belts (darker) and zones (lighter), created by powerful east-west jet streams moving in opposite directions.

The most famous feature of Jupiter is the Great Red Spot, a massive storm that has been raging continuously for at least 350 years. At its largest, the Great Red Spot was three times the diameter of Earth, though it has been shrinking in recent decades. The storm’s reddish color is thought to come from complex organic molecules formed by chemical reactions driven by ultraviolet light. The winds inside the storm reach about 400 miles per hour. Jupiter also has other large storms and oval-shaped weather systems that can persist for decades.

Jupiter has at least 95 known moons — more than any planet in the solar system. The four largest — Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto — were discovered by Galileo in 1610 and are called the Galilean moons. Io is the most volcanically active world in the solar system, with hundreds of active volcanoes driven by tidal heating from Jupiter’s immense gravity. Europa has a smooth icy surface covering a global subsurface ocean of liquid water, making it one of the most promising places in the solar system to search for life. Ganymede is the largest moon in the solar system, bigger than the planet Mercury, and has its own magnetic field.

Jupiter’s enormous gravitational field plays an important role in the solar system. It acts as a cosmic shield, deflecting or capturing comets and asteroids that might otherwise collide with the inner planets, including Earth. The asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter is shaped by Jupiter’s gravity, which prevents the material there from coalescing into a planet. Jupiter also has a faint ring system and an extremely powerful magnetic field — the strongest of any planet in the solar system — which creates intense radiation belts that would be lethal to unprotected spacecraft. Several spacecraft have visited Jupiter, including Galileo, which orbited the planet for eight years, and Juno, which is still in orbit studying Jupiter’s interior.

Printable Worksheet

More Planet Jupiter Worksheets