Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1897-06-04
GIANT OF PLANETS.
HOW 1T COMPARES WITH THE
GLOBE WE INHABlT.
Jupiter Smiles Upon venus-Pretty
Girls Probably DO Not Dance Nor
Planets.


In point of brilliancy, Jupiter has
only one competitor and superior
among the starry hosts, and that is
Venus. 1t reached it's point of ap-
position to the sun February 90, and
now rises in the early evening and will
continue to be an evening star until
the middle of August. On September
Ii it will reach its point of superior
conjunction. At that date it will be
100000 miles from us. It's present
distance is about 4OO,OOO,OOO miles.
Jupiter requires about twelve years
to make journey around the sun.
Therefore, if an old gentleman of Y
here on earth had lived in Jupiter he
would be a youth OF six summers. 1t
is law governing the planets in their
annual journey that the longer the
journey the more deliberate their gait.
Thus Mercury has the shortest Jour-
ney, but it is a hustler, averaging more
than % miles q second. Our earth,
with longer trip, slackens her speed
to about 10 miles second. Jupiter
with his long voyage before him, takes
a gait of about eight miles second !;
Neptune, with an annual journey of
more than S,000,OOO,OO0 miles before
him, as if realizing the necessity of
outstanding her strength, gets down to
gait of three and one-half miles a
second.
Very appropriately Jupiter is known
as the giant planet. 1t is larger than
all the other planets combined. Its
equatorial diameter is little more than
$4,000 miles. 1t is far more flattened
at the poles than our earth. The
equatorial and polar diameter of the
latter varies only 26 miles, while the
variation of Jupiter is 5000 miles. AS
its diameter is eleven times that
of our earth its relative size is found
by cubing eleven, which gives us
1881.
While Jupiter is so sluggish and so
much slower than the earth in its
motion on its yearly journey. yet in a
contest of speed in daily motion on its
axis it makes the earth hide its head.
1t makes complete rotation in ten
hours. A point on its equator will
travel a mile while a point on our
equator will go about 80 yards. If
point on our equator should move
with such velocity there would be
only about 80 minutes from sunrise
to sunset. But there would be no one
in the region of our equator to see the
sun rise or set. Everything movable
in that region would be hurled off into
space by centrifugal force.
Although in size Jupiter is 400 times
larger, yet in relative density it is only
one-fourth that of our earth. In vol
ume it would make 400 earths; but
to make them as dense as our earth
we should have little more than 300.
This lack of density on the part of
Jupiter is what we might expect from
the nebular hypothesis. AS rule the
density of planets increases as their
distance from the sun decreases.
Though the relative density of Jupiter
is so much less than that of the earth,
yet because of its greater mass the
attractive force for bodies ON its surface
is far greater than on our earth.
Thus, if girl of 16 years should
weigh 100 pounds here, if transferred
to Jupiter she would draw the scales
at 260 pounds. Unless we were differ
emily constituted, dancing on Jupiter
would prove wearisome sport.
1t may interest some young readers
to know how we ascertain the compar-
ative weight of a body on the surface
of Jupiter. Gravity, or weight. is
directly accordingly to the mass, and
inversely as the square of the distance
The distance in such q calculation is
the distance from the surface to the
center of the planet. The mass OF
Jupiter is BIG times that of the earth.
From this alone a body would weigh
316 times as much OH the surface OF
Jupiter as on the earth. But the
matter of distance changes this very
materially. From surface to center
Jupiter is eleven times greater than
our earth. The square of this gives us
121. Here, you see, the earth has the
decided advantage. If distance alone
be considered, an object on our earth
would weigh III times moro than or
Jupiter. We obtain the relative sur
faca gravity nv DIVIDING which Give,