How much of the sunlight does Jupiter receive?

Question

I'm doing a project and i need to know this answer fast! Also we are not allowed to use wikipedia.

Answer 1

Best answer

Outside Earth's atmosphere, the Solar flux is 1370 Watts per square metre, for a surface placed perpendicular to the direction of the sunrays.

The flux varies inversely proportional to the square of the distance.

Earth's average distance from the Sun is 1 astronomical unit (AU).

Jupiter's average distance from the Sun is 5.2 AU

Solar flux at Jupiter = 1370 * (1/5.2)^2 = 1370 / 27 = 50.66 Watts/m^2

The trick I use to see how much is intercepted by the planet, is to use the "cross-section" of the planet - the area of a circle, with the same radius as the planet:

Radius of Jupiter (in metres) = 142,980,000

Cross-section = pi * R^2 = 6.422*10^16 m^2

Multiply that by the flux at Jupiter:

50.66 W/m^2 * 6.422*10^16 m^2 = 3.25*10^18 W

In "normal" numbers:

3 250 000 000 000 000 000 W (watts)

or

3 250 000 000 000 MW (megawatts)

3 250 000 000 GW (gigawatts, where both "g" are hard)

3 250 000 TW (terawatts)

3,250 PW (petawatts)

3.25 EW (exawatts)

Jupiter is bright because its clouds "bounce back" a lot of this sunlight without absorbing it (52% is bounced back).

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If all you are looking for is a ratio, compared to Earth, then it is the inverse of the distance, squared.

(1/5.2)^2 = 1/27

Jupiter receives 1/27 as much sunlight as Earth.

• ant3 years agoReport

  its 1/25 as much as the earth does. the formula is 1/5^2 the 5 is about how many times farther a planet is from the sun
  

Answer 2

<QUOTE>we are not allowed to use wikipedia.</QUOTE>

Then how about going to the library and picking up some books about astronomy?

Jupiter is about 5 times further from the Sun than the Earth is, so it receives about 25 times less energy per unit area. However, Jupiter's area is much larger than the Earth's.

Answer 3

Sunlight is inversely proportional to the square if the distance

Jupiter is 5.2 times further away than we are.

5.2 squared is 27

so 1/27 what WE get

Answer 4

The is no visible light reaching Jupiter as the Sun emits no visible light. Light is created in the atmospheres of planets or moons by the fluorescence of atmospheric material bombarded by Solar UV and up radiation.

Answer 5

Well about 3/4s of what we get. It's the next planet after us in the solar system.

Source(s): I love observing astronomy.

Answer 6

Al that gets there.

Answer 7

i don't get it where's the answer

Answer 8

none