Montana Skies: Jupiter

Dr. Kelly Cline says he's getting questions from viewers about a bright star in the east. Here's tonight's Montana Skies.

I'm getting calls! I'm getting e-mails: "Dr. Cline, what is that amazingly bright star over in the East?" Ladies and gentlemen: That's no star. If you step outside tonight and face east, prepare to be astonished by the super crazy bright planet Jupiter! It's the brightest thing anywhere in the sky! That planet is astounding! It's fantastic! Right now Jupiter is 400 million miles away from us, so far away that it takes light half an hour to get here from there. So why is it so bright? Jupiter is huge! Do you want to see what Jupiter looks like compared to the other planets?

Bam! These tiny little specks are Mercury, Venus, the Earth, and Mars. Then check out Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Jupiter is the biggest of the big, 10 times the diameter of the Earth, 300 times more massive than the Earth. These outer planets are totally different things than the inner planets. Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars are all mostly made of rock and metal. They all have mountains and valleys, and craters. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are huge gas giants.

Jupiter is 90% gas, mostly hydrogen and helium gas, like the Sun. You're never going to hear about any space probe landing on Jupiter! What's to land on? 15 years ago the Galileo spacecraft dropped a probe down into Jupiter. It tossed out a parachute and sent us readings for about an hour, as it went deeper and deeper, until CRUNCH – the probe was crushed and burned by the intense heat and pressure, the weight of from all that enormous atmosphere: and the probe only got 100 miles into the beast. Imagine how nasty Jupiter gets even deeper! Crazy!

So step outside tonight, look up in the east, and prepare to have your eyes blown out by the super amazingly bright planet Jupiter!