Jupiter Is the Best Planet

These are the ground rules: You can’t say Earth is your favorite planet.

This was the framework my colleagues established in a recent newsroom debate over which of the classical planets is the most awe-inspiring. You can’t pick Earth. That would be obnoxious. Like saying your spirit animal is a human.

Well, fine. I pick Jupiter.

Gargantuan, swirling, violent Jupiter. A planet made from the cloud that formed the moment the sun was born. A gas giant that contains more than twice the material of all the other planets in our solar system combined. Huge enough to house 1,300 Earths, and with a midsection that spans 44,308 miles. (The radius of Earth is 3,961 miles.)

Jupiter, where winds blow at several hundred miles an hour. That epic storm is what you see when you notice the planet’s famed Great Red Spot—a massive high-pressure system, equivalent in size to three of our home planet.