Jupiter is the fifth planet from the sun. It sits between Mars and Saturn. Though you might want to find out how long it would take to reach this planet, you should also think about what would happen when you got there. As Jupiter consists of gas, we cannot land on the planet’s surface because there isn’t anything that could support a craft. NASA astronomers found that it takes an average of six years to reach Jupiter from Earth. In this article, we’ll look at Jupiter and why it takes so long to reach the plant as well as how long other trips would take.
How far is Earth from Jupiter?
Jupiter is one of the few planets that you can see on a normal day. The high concentration of gases on the planet makes it burn bright and creates colors that we can easily see through the light spectrum. Both Earth and Jupiter move in an elliptical direction, which changes how close they are. At certain points in time, the planets are 365 miles apart. The two planets can be more than 600 million miles apart at other points, which can affect the time it would take to travel between them.
How Long Would it Take to Get to Jupiter?
The distance between Earth and Jupiter depends on the orbits of each planet but can reach more than 600 million miles. Depending on what the missions do and where they go, it can take around two years to six years to reach Jupiter.
Galileo
One of the space probes used by NASA was Galileo. It launched in October of 1989 and spent a little more than six years traveling through space before landing on Jupiter in December of 1995. One reason it took so long for the probe to reach Jupiter is that it followed the orbital paths of both Earth and Venus, which added more than two billion miles to its journey.
Voyager and Other Trips
Voyager I was one of the missions launched by NASA to track the distance between Earth and other planets. It left Earth in September of 1977 and reached Jupiter in March of 1979, which is just under two years. This mission proved that Jupiter was closer to the Earth than initially expected, especially when astronauts followed a direct path. New Horizons was a mission that traveled from Earth to dwarf planets such as Pluto. It left Earth in January of 2006 and reached Jupiter in February of 2007 before traveling deeper into the solar system. Other countries also launched missions that reached Jupiter in around two years or less.
What is the Shortest Trip?
The shortest trip to any object in space is the trip to the moon, which takes an average of three days. If you want to reach Mars, it would take around seven months. When the cycles of Mars and Earth are in alignment, the trip takes well under a year. If those cycles are not in sync, the trip could take nine months or longer. Another short trip would be the one between Earth and Venus, which takes 15 months because the planet is more than 20 billion miles away.
Longer Trips
Traveling to other planets would take even longer. NASA launched Cassini in 1997 but found that it didn’t land on Saturn until 2004, seven years later. One of the landers onboard traveled to one of the planet’s moons and sent back information that NASA still uses today. The distance between Earth and Uranus would take this trip more than eight years long. When NASA launched the Voyager, it took a little longer to reach Uranus but still made it there within a decade. This same craft helped NASA determine that it would take 12 years to reach Neptune.
No Life on Jupiter
Jupiter is one of the planets that cannot sustain any type of life because of its gaseous design. When the planet was formed, it absorbed gas and debris that created its shape and design. Many planets that cannot sustain human life long term have rocky surfaces that probes and shuttles can land on. As Jupiter only consists of gas, it’s impossible to land on the planet. NASA and other space organizations can only orbit around the planet and collect data.