Is Jupiter smaller than we thought? NASA spacecraft makes new find
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2026/02/05/jupiter-nasa-juno-size/88511055007/
Is Jupiter smaller than we thought? NASA spacecraft makes new find
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2026/02/05/jupiter-nasa-juno-size/88511055007/
7 Comments
From “Textbooks will need to be updated” to “Jupiter is now believed to be about five miles narrower at its equator and 15 miles flatter at its poles.”
I don’t know what I was expecting, but a whopping 0.02% smaller polar radius is not it. What were the uncertainty ranges on previous measurements/estimates? I can’t read the full Nature paper.
>At the 1-bar pressure level, we find a polar radius of 66,842 ± 0.4 km, an equatorial radius of 71,488 ± 0.4 km and a mean radius of 69,886 ± 0.4 km, which are 12 km, 4 km and 8 km smaller than previous estimates, respectively
So GLP-1’s have made it to Jupiter. For shame, we loved you with all your size, Jupiter! Don’t change just because some haters were calling you a Gas giant!
The title could be “NASA makes more precise measurement of Jupiters size”, but that wouldn’t get clicks.
It just shrunk a little because it’s cold.
If you’re cold, Jupiter is cold. Bring Jupiter inside.
This is a nothing burger, its within tolerance and not even noticeable for most.
Jupiter was in the pool! It was in the pool!