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Planetary Radio Q and A: What's Jupiter made of? Part 2

Emily Lakdawalla

Written by Emily Lakdawalla
August 18, 2009

This week's Planetary Radio features Don Yeomans on a new website that helps to inform the public about the potentially hazardous asteroids in the space near Earth. On "Questions and Answers" I continued answering the question:"I've heard Jupiter called a 'failed star' because it's made mostly of hydrogen. What is it made of, other than hydrogen?"

My answer is taken in large part from a fine astronomy textbook, The Cosmic Perspective, by Bennett, Donahue, Schneider, and Voit:

Voyager 1 approaches Jupiter

NASA / JPL

Voyager 1 approaches Jupiter
This image of Jupiter was captured on January 9, 1979 by Voyager 1, 54 million kilometers (34 million miles) from a March 5 closest approach.

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