what number planet is jupiter in the solar system
Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a giant planet with a mass one-thousandth that of the Sun, but two-and-a-half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined. Jupiter and Saturn are gas giants; the other two giant planets, Uranus and Neptune are ice giants. Jupiter has been known to astronomers since antiquity.[13] The Romans named it after their god Jupiter.[14] When viewed from Earth, Jupiter can reach an apparent magnitude of âˆ’2.94, bright enough for its reflected light to cast shadows,[15] and making it on average the third-brightest object in the night sky after the Moon and Venus.
Formation and evolution of the Solar System The giant planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) formed further out, beyond the frost line, which is the point between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter where the material is cool enough for volatile icy compounds to remain solid. The ices that formed the Jovian planets were more abundant than the metals and silicates that formed the terrestrial planets, allowing the giant planets to grow massive enough to capture hydrogen and helium, the lightest and most abundant elements.[10] Planetesimals beyond the frost line accumulated up to 4 M⊕ within about 3 million years.[30] Today, the four giant planets comprise just under 99% of all the mass orbiting the Sun.[note 2] Theorists believe it is no accident that Jupiter lies just beyond the frost line. Because the frost line accumulated large amounts of water via evaporation from infalling icy material, it created a region of lower pressure that increased the speed of orbiting dust particles and halted their motion toward the Sun. In effect, the frost line acted as a barrier that caused material to accumulate rapidly at ~5 AU from the Sun. This excess material coalesced into a large embryo (or core) on the order of 10 M⊕, which began to accumulate an envelope via accretion of gas from the surrounding disc at an ever-increasing rate.[34][35] Once the envelope mass became about equal to the solid core mass, growth proceeded very rapidly, reaching about 150 Earth masses ~105 years thereafter and finally topping out at 318 M⊕.[36] Saturn may owe its substantially lower mass simply to having formed a few million years after Jupiter, when there was less gas available to consume.[30][37]