It is considered peculiar due to its lack of a solid surface, making it essentially impossible to walk on.
As the fifth planet from the Sun, Jupiter has a diameter at the equator of 142,984 kilometers, which is over 11 times that of Earth, according to Universe Today.
Jupiter’s mass is 2.5 times greater than the combined mass of all the planets in the Solar System, with the Sun accounting for 99.9% of the total mass of the entire Solar System.
Jupiter belongs to the group of gas giant planets in the Solar System, alongside Saturn. Uranus and Neptune are referred to as ice giant planets, while the remaining planets are rocky planets. According to Space.com, as you move from the outer layers towards the core of Jupiter, pressure and temperature increase. As a result, deeper within the planet, hydrogen undergoes a transition from gas to liquid and even metallic state.
Jupiter completes one rotation on its axis in about 10 hours, making it the fastest rotating planet in the Solar System. A day on Jupiter is shorter than a day on Earth. Its axial tilt is relatively small, at 3.13 degrees. This is why Jupiter doesn’t experience significant seasonal changes like Earth and Mars.
What would happen if you were to be dropped onto Jupiter?
Unlike Earth, Jupiter does not have a solid surface. Instead, it is a massive ball of gas and other substances compressed tightly together to form a planet. The gas in Jupiter’s atmosphere is also stratified, with thinning layers of gas as you move away from the planet’s core.
If you were dropped from a position outside Jupiter’s atmospheric envelope (which we’ll call the “surface”) and fell towards its interior for a distance of about 300,000 kilometers, you would die due to radiation poisoning
However, let’s say you were wearing a spacesuit that was impervious to destruction, then you would be fine. Instead, due to Jupiter’s enormous mass, your falling speed would start to increase. As you continue to fall, you would pass through the middle portion of Jupiter’s upper atmospheric layer, penetrating through clouds of ammonia.
You wouldn’t burn up during this fall because you would have already passed through the thickest part of the atmosphere. The heat from friction and supersonic compression would not ignite you at this stage.
After a few minutes, you would continue to fall, passing through a region where the pressure is twice the average surface pressure on Earth. As you continue to fall, the atmospheric pressure would increase, and the surrounding temperature would rise. Everything around you would gradually darken, and after a while, it would become pitch black, with temperatures exceeding 100 degrees Celsius.
The temperature would continue to rise as you enter the inner regions of the planet, where the atmospheric pressure and density are significantly high, causing your falling speed to decrease to a minimum.
At this level, you would encounter a gigantic ocean of liquid metallic hydrogen, as the extremely high atmospheric pressure has transformed the gaseous hydrogen into a liquid state. Jupiter has the fastest rotation speed among the planets in the Solar System, and as it spins, this liquid metallic ocean would form swirling vortices, creating the strongest magnetic field in the Solar System.
Finally, you would reach a point of approximately 2 million bars of pressure and temperatures as high as the Sun. At this point, you would not be able to continue falling or survive any longer. Space scientists are still uncertain whether Jupiter consists solely of gas or has a solid and hot core. Therefore, it is impossible for a person to set foot on the surface of Jupiter.