Jupiter
Jupiter
With a diameter of approximately 140,000 kilometres, Jupiter is the largest planet in the Solar System. It accounts for 71.1 percent of the mass of all the planets, which means that Jupiter has 318 times more mass than Earth. It is the nearest of the four gas giant planets to the Sun and consists mainly of hydrogen and helium but is believed to have a core of ice and rock. Its dynamic cloud bands and vortices are distinctive. This image was acquired on 30 December 2000 from a distance of two million kilometres when the Cassini spacecraft passed the planet on its way to Saturn.
