Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass nearly 2.5 times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined and slightly less than one-thousandth the mass of the Sun. Its diameter is 11 times that of Earth and a tenth that of the Sun. Jupiter orbits the Sun at a distance of 5.20 AU (778.5 Gm), with an orbital period of 11.86 years. It is the third-brightest natural object in the Earth's night sky, after the Moon and Venus, and has been observed since prehistoric times. Its name derives from that of Jupiter, the chief deity of ancient Roman religionÂ
Jupiter was the first of the Sun's planets to form, and its inward migration during the primordial phase of the Solar System affected much of the formation history of the other planets. Jupiter's atmosphere consists of 76% hydrogen and 24% helium by mass, with a denser interior. It contains traces of the elements carbon, oxygen, sulfur, neon, and compounds such as ammonia, water vapour, phosphine, hydrogen sulfide, and hydrocarbons. Jupiter's helium abundance is 80% of the Sun's, similar to Saturn's composition.
The outer atmosphere is divided into a series of latitudinal bands, with turbulence and storms along their interacting boundaries; the most obvious result of this is the Great Red Spot, a giant storm that has been recorded since 1831. Because of its rapid rotation rate, one turn in ten hours, Jupiter is an oblate spheroid; it has a slight but noticeable 6.5% bulge around the equator compared to its poles. Its internal structure is believed to consist of an outer mantle of fluid metallic hydrogen and a diffuse inner core of denser material. The ongoing contraction of Jupiter's interior generates more heat than the planet receives from the Sun. Jupiter's magnetic field is the strongest and second-largest contiguous structure in the Solar System, generated by eddy currents within the fluid, metallic hydrogen core. The solar wind interacts with the magnetosphere, extending it outward and affecting Jupiter's orbit.