What is Jupiters surface or atmosphere like?

Answer 1

When we look at Jupiter, whether it be through a telescope, or from spacecraft images. shows not the surface of the planet, but the atmosphere. The atmosphere appears as alternating bands of light regions, called zones, and dark regions called belts, that run parallel to the equator. The zones are higher in altitude than the belts, and are correspondingly lower in temperature. It is believed that the belts represent descending areas of low pressure. Jupiter radiates heat energy out to space by way of convection. The zones carry energy to the surface and then cool, and sink again. It was the markings in Jupiter's clouds that first allowed astronomers to measure the giant planets' rate of rotation. As it turns out, the rotation rate varies with latitude. Near the equator the rotation rate is 9 hours 50 minutes. At the poles, the planet rotates in 9 hours 55 minutes. This varied rate is known as differential rotation. The Earth is solid and all parts rotate at the same rate. Jupiter is not solid, and such a fast rotation, with speeds at the equator of 43,000 km/hr, causes the planet to flatten at the poles. It is this same high rate of rotation that powers the atmosphere, and causes it to stretch into the bands we see. Jet streams form between the boundaries of the belts and zones which create disturbances. These jet streams are very fast, over 3 times the speed of the fastest jet stream on Earth. These disturbances may be short lived, or they might last for many hundreds of years.