Is Jupiter the Biggest Planet?

Jupiter, biggest Planet?

Yes, having a radius of 43,441 miles (or 69.911 km), Jupiter is the biggest planet of our solar system. It is not, however, the biggest planet we have ever discovered outside this system.

If you wish to compare it to the Earth, Jupiter radius is almost 11 times bigger, since our planet radius is about 3,959 miles (6.311 km).

Considering the volume, it is 3.434×10¹⁴  mi³ (1,431×10¹⁵ km³) meaning that it is 1,321 times bigger (one thousand, three hundreds, twenty one) than Earth’s,  which is 2.599×10¹¹ mi³ (1.08321×10¹² km³ ).

In other words 1,321 Earths would fit within Jupiter’s volume.

However, Saturn is the second biggest one, having a radius of  37,449 miles (60.268 km), the 86.32% of Jupiter one, and a volume of  1.967×10¹⁴  mi³ (0,827x 10¹⁵ km³), corresponding to the 57.28% of Jupiter planet’s volume.

Are you thinking that Jupiter is huge?

Well, surely you are not wrong, we can not say it is tiny. 

It has to be said, anyway, that there exist, out there, planets which are way larger than it.

For example, TrES-4b, extrasolar planet orbiting in 31 hours the star GSC 03089-00929 (Hercules constellation) 1,430 light years away, has a radius of 143,000 miles (230.000 km) which is the 330% of the biggest planet of our system.

Is Jupiter bigger than Sun?

No way!

Sun radius is 432,686 miles (696.340 km) while Jupiter is 43,441 miles (69.911 km), meaning that gas giant radius is 10 times smaller than our star’s.

Comparing, instead, the volume, our shiny star value is 3.38 ×10¹⁷mi³ (1,41×10¹⁸ km³) while, as said above, Jupiter’s one is 3.434×10¹⁴  mi³ (1,431×10¹⁵ km³).

Comparing the volume values, you can fit about 1,000 Jupiters inside our energy source,  the sun.

Such a big amount of space, isn’t it?

Well, it depends.

There are celestial corps that are way bigger than our sun, even up to a thousand times (e.g. Antares, Betelgeuse giant red stars).  

This leads to the conclusion that they are, consequently, up to 1,000,000 times corps greater than Jupiter, which makes our lovely father planet, Jupiter, not soo big, in the end.

Is Jupiter bigger than Earth?

Absolutely yes!

As computed above, Jupiter is 1,321 times greater in volume than Earth and it has a radius which is 11 times longer; this makes Jupiter bigger than our home, the Earth.

The numbers should explain why you could potentially fit an entire Earth within Jupiter Great Red Spot, and there would be even some free space!

If you are already preparing the luggages, calm down.

Have a look to the below picture and then decide if you still wish live in Jupiter planet’s Great Red Spot.

Is Jupiter the largest Planet?

Jupiter, with his greatest volume of 3.434×10¹⁴  mi³ (1,431×10¹⁵ km³) and his longest radius of 43,441 miles (or 69.911 km), can be considered the largest planet of our solar system.

Starting from the tiniest planet, the order in size of our system planets and the comparison with Jupiter and Earth, assuming the radius as parameter, are:

• Mercury (1,516 miles/2.440 km) – 3.45% of Jupiter’s – 38.29% of Earth one
• Mars (2,460 miles/3.390 km) – 5.66% of Jupiter’s – 62.14% of Earth one
• Venus (3,761 miles/6.052 km) – 8.66% of Jupiter’s – 95.76% of Earth one
• Earth ( 3,959 miles/6.311 km) – 9.11% of Jupiter’s
• Neptune (15,299 miles/ 24.622 km) –  35.22% of Jupiter’s – 388.44% of Earth one
• Uranus ( 15,759 miles/ 25.362 km) – 36.28% of Jupiter’s – 398.06% of Earth one
• Saturn ( 36,184 miles/58.232 km ) – 83.29% of Jupiter’s – 913.97% of Earth one
• Jupiter (43,441 miles/69.911 km ) – 1,097.27% of Earth one 

With this data, we can conclude that Jupiter, alone, has the 35.5% of the total of solar system planets radius.

Joint with Saturn, they make the 65.07%. 

The volume is, so, heterogeneous, in our system.

The remaining 34.93% is shared between the other 6 planets, Uranus, Neptune, Earth, Venus, Mars and Mercury.

Anyway, we can surely conclude that Jupiter is the largest and biggest planet of our solar system.

If you are now wondering about the composition and phenomena of Jupiter atmosphere, you might be interested in reading our article Jupiter, Rock or Gas Planet?.