Jupiter
fifth planet in the Solar System and largest among all; gaseous giant mainly composed of hydrogen and helium
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun, and the largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass nearly 2.5 times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined and slightly less than one-thousandth the mass of the Sun. The diameter of Jupiter is 11 times that of Earth and a tenth that of the Sun. It orbits the Sun at a distance of 5.20 AU (778.5 Gm), with an orbital period of 11.86 years. Jupiter is the third-brightest natural object in the Earth's night sky, after the Moon and Venus, and has been observed since prehistoric times. Its name derives from that of Jupiter, the chief deity of ancient Roman religion.
Jupiter was the first of the Sun's planets to form, and its inward migration during the primordial phase of the Solar System affected much of the formation history of the other planets. Jupiter's atmosphere consists of 76% hydrogen and 24% helium by mass, with a denser interior. It contains traces of the elements carbon, oxygen, sulfur, neon, and compounds such as ammonia, water vapour, phosphine, hydrogen sulfide, and hydrocarbons. Jupiter's helium abundance is 80% of the Sun's, similar to Saturn's composition.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Jupiter” is fifth planet in the Solar System and largest among all; gaseous giant mainly composed of hydrogen and helium. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Jupiter, fifth and planet, not as a finished interpretation.
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The phrase “fifth planet in the Solar System and largest among all; gaseous giant mainly composed of hydrogen and helium” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q319. VIAF identifies the subject as 316741895. The Library of Congress control number is sh85071063. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Jupiter” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.