# How far away is Jupiter right now?

> Jupiter's distance from Earth, live. The giant that outweighs all the other planets together, its storms, its shortest day and its four great moons.

HTML: https://www.theuniversecounts.com/solar-system/planets/jupiter

Numbers as of 2026-10-31 03:41 UTC. Live ones keep changing on the HTML page.

Right now Jupiter is about 825 million kilometres from Earth, and the gap changes every second. A radio message, moving at the speed of light, needs 46 minutes to cross it.

Jupiter circles the Sun far beyond Mars, so it is never near. Its distance from us swings between 589 million and 969 million kilometres. The next close approach is on 10 February 2027.

- Time until Jupiter's next close approach to Earth: 102 d 11 h 52 m 48 s
- Length of one turn of Jupiter (sidereal day): 9 h 55 m 30 s
- Temperature of Jupiter at the 1 bar level: -108 °C
- Number of known moons of Jupiter: 115

## The giant of the planets

What is Jupiter?

Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun, and by far the largest. It is a gas giant: a huge ball made mostly of hydrogen and helium, the same two gases as the Sun. It has no solid ground to stand on.

Jupiter is about 11 times as wide as Earth, and about 1,400 Earths would fit inside it. It has about 318 times Earth's mass. That is about 2.5 times the mass of all the other planets put together.

Deep inside, the weight of all that gas squeezes the hydrogen into a liquid. NASA calls it the largest ocean in the solar system, an ocean of hydrogen instead of water.

The biggest planet is named after the king of the Roman gods. Most of its moons carry the names of figures from his stories.

## Why the distance keeps changing

The next close approach

Earth and Jupiter both circle the Sun, like runners on a track. Jupiter has an outer lane and a slower pace, about 13 kilometres per second. Since you opened this page, it has travelled [counts up live on the page] kilometres. Even so, one lap takes it about 12 Earth years.

So Earth keeps catching up and overtaking it, about once every 1.09 years. Then the two planets are on the same side of the Sun, as close as they get. Jupiter stands opposite the Sun in our sky, rising at sunset and shining all night. Astronomers call this opposition.

Months later, Jupiter lies beyond the Sun, up to 969 million kilometres away.

Not every meeting is equally close. Jupiter's orbit is slightly oval, so the nearest meetings come once in each Jupiter year. They happen when Earth catches up near Jupiter's closest point to the Sun. The clock on this page counts down to the next close approach, on 10 February 2027.

## A hello that takes most of an hour

Right now

Radio waves are a kind of light, and nothing travels faster. Even so, a message to Jupiter takes a long time. At today's distance it needs 46 minutes to arrive, and the reply needs as long again.

That gap made for a tense night. On 4 July 2016, NASA's Juno spacecraft fired its engine to slow down and be caught by Jupiter's gravity. Nobody on Earth could correct it in time. Every signal the team received told them about something that had already happened.

It worked. Juno has circled Jupiter ever since, swooping low over the clouds and out again. NASA still lists it as an active mission (October 2026).

More are on the way. NASA's Europa Clipper is due at Jupiter in April 2030, and Europe's Juice in July 2031. Each will send its pictures home across the same long gap.

## The shortest day, the oldest storm

One turn

Jupiter spins faster than any other planet. One turn takes 9 h 55 m 30 s, so a day there is less than half as long as ours. Its year is long, though: it holds about 10,000 of those short days.

The fast spin stretches the clouds into stripes: pale zones and darker belts, with winds blowing east and west in turn. Near the equator they reach about 150 metres per second. That is about 1.5 times as fast as a high-speed train.

With no ground to slow them down, storms on Jupiter can last a very long time. The Great Red Spot is a storm larger than Earth. A study in 2024 traced it back to 1831; a spot seen in 1665 was probably a different storm, which faded away. The Great Red Spot has been shrinking for a century and more, and nobody yet knows how long it will last.

## Cold at the cloud tops

Temperature at the 1 bar level

Jupiter has no surface, so there is no ground to take its temperature. Instead, scientists measure it where the air presses as hard as ours does at sea level. They call that height the 1 bar level.

There it is -108 °C. Earth's average is 15 °C. Jupiter is about 5.2 times as far from the Sun as we are, so its sunlight is weak.

Higher up, it is colder still. Deeper down, the pressure and the heat keep climbing. NASA says a spacecraft falling into Jupiter would be crushed, melted and vaporised, with nowhere to land.

That is how NASA's Galileo orbiter ended in September 2003. It was running out of fuel, so the team steered it into Jupiter on purpose. That way it could never crash into Europa and carry microbes from Earth to its ocean.

## Four great moons

Moons known

Jupiter has 115 known moons, as of October 2026. Four of them are worlds in their own right.

Galileo Galilei saw these four first, through an early telescope, in 1610. They were the first moons ever found beyond Earth's own. Today we call them the Galilean moons.

Io is the most volcanic world in the solar system, with hundreds of volcanoes. Europa hides a salty ocean under its ice, which may hold twice as much water as all of Earth's oceans. Ganymede is the largest moon of all, bigger than the planet Mercury. Callisto, the outermost of the four, completes the family.

That ocean on Europa makes it one of the best places to look for life beyond Earth. Europa Clipper will fly past it again and again, to learn whether the ocean could support life.

## FAQ

### How far away is Jupiter right now?

About 825 million kilometres, from the centre of Earth to the centre of Jupiter. The number on this page is live. Over a year or so it swings between 589 million and 969 million kilometres.

### When is Jupiter closest to Earth next?

On 10 February 2027. Within a day or two of then, Jupiter is at opposition: opposite the Sun in our sky, rising at sunset and up all night. It happens about once every 1.09 years.

### Could you land on Jupiter?

No. Jupiter is a gas giant with no solid surface. The deeper you go, the thicker and hotter it gets. NASA says a spacecraft would be crushed, melted and vaporised before it found anywhere to land.

### How many moons does Jupiter have?

115, as officially recognised in October 2026. The four largest, Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, were found by Galileo in 1610. Ganymede is the largest moon in the solar system.

### How long does it take Jupiter to orbit the Sun?

A year on Jupiter, one trip round the Sun, lasts about 12 Earth years. It holds about 10,000 of Jupiter's short days.

### How long is a day on Jupiter?

One turn takes 9 h 55 m 30 s, the shortest day of any planet. Jupiter has no ground, so its day is counted as one turn of the planet.

## Related

- [Mars](https://www.theuniversecounts.com/solar-system/planets/mars.md)
- [Planets](https://www.theuniversecounts.com/solar-system/planets.md)
- [Spacecraft](https://www.theuniversecounts.com/solar-system/spacecraft.md)
- [Saturn](https://www.theuniversecounts.com/solar-system/planets/saturn.md)

Jupiter's four great moons were circling it long before anyone looked up and saw them. When you next see Jupiter shining steadily at night, what will you wonder about first?

## Sources

- Average surface temperature of Earth (Measured, with error): [NASA NSSDCA: Earth Fact Sheet](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/earthfact.html)
- Average time between Jupiter's close approaches to Earth (synodic period) (Measured): [NASA NSSDCA: Jupiter Fact Sheet](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/jupiterfact.html)
- Combined mass of the seven planets other than Jupiter (Measured): [NASA NSSDCA: Planetary Fact Sheet - Metric](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/); [NASA NSSDCA: Saturn Fact Sheet](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/saturnfact.html); [NASA Science: Jupiter Facts](https://science.nasa.gov/jupiter/jupiter-facts/)
- Earth's average distance from the Sun (Measured): [NASA NSSDCA: Earth Fact Sheet](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/earthfact.html)
- Earth's average distance from the Sun in kilometres (Measured): [NASA: Earth: Facts](https://science.nasa.gov/earth/facts/)
- Earth's diameter at the equator (Measured): [NASA NSSDCA: Earth Fact Sheet](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/earthfact.html)
- Jupiter's average distance from the Sun (Measured): [NASA NSSDCA: Jupiter Fact Sheet](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/jupiterfact.html)
- Jupiter's average speed around the Sun (Measured): [NASA NSSDCA: Jupiter Fact Sheet](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/jupiterfact.html)
- Jupiter's diameter at the equator (Measured): [NASA NSSDCA: Jupiter Fact Sheet](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/jupiterfact.html)
- Jupiter's distance from Earth (Measured): [NASA NSSDCA: Jupiter Fact Sheet](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/jupiterfact.html)
- Largest possible distance between Earth and Jupiter (Measured): [NASA NSSDCA: Jupiter Fact Sheet](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/jupiterfact.html)
- Length of a year on Jupiter (Measured): [NASA NSSDCA: Jupiter Fact Sheet](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/jupiterfact.html)
- Length of one turn of Jupiter (sidereal day) (Measured): [NASA NSSDCA: Jupiter Fact Sheet](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/jupiterfact.html)
- Mass of Jupiter (Measured): [NASA NSSDCA: Jupiter Fact Sheet](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/jupiterfact.html)
- Mass of the Earth (Measured): [NASA NSSDCA: Earth Fact Sheet](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/earthfact.html)
- Number of known moons of Jupiter (Measured): [NASA: Moons: Facts](https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/moons/facts/)
- Smallest possible distance between Earth and Jupiter (Measured): [NASA NSSDCA: Jupiter Fact Sheet](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/jupiterfact.html)
- Speed of light in a vacuum (Measured): [BIPM: SI defining constants](https://www.bipm.org/en/measurement-units/si-defining-constants)
- Temperature of Jupiter at the 1 bar level (Measured, with error): [NASA NSSDCA: Jupiter Fact Sheet](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/jupiterfact.html)
- Time until Jupiter's next close approach to Earth (Measured): [National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ): ほしぞら情報 2027年2月](https://www.nao.ac.jp/astro/sky/2027/02.html)
- Top speed of the world's fastest scheduled trains, China's Fuxing (Measured): [China State Railway Group (China Railway): World's Longest High Speed Railway (HSR) Network Takes Shape in China](http://www.china-railway.com.cn/english/news/202210/t20221021_123857.html); [Caixin Global: China Takes World's Fastest Train One Step Closer to Market](https://www.caixinglobal.com/2026-08-10/china-takes-worlds-fastest-train-one-step-closer-to-market-102472951.html)
- Top wind speed in Jupiter's cloud bands near the equator (Estimated): [NASA NSSDCA: Jupiter Fact Sheet](https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/jupiterfact.html); [NASA Science: Jupiter Facts](https://science.nasa.gov/jupiter/jupiter-facts/)
- Typical cruising speed of a long-haul airliner (Estimated): [EUROCONTROL: Aircraft Performance Database: B789 (Boeing 787-9)](https://contentzone.eurocontrol.int/aircraftperformance/details.aspx?ICAO=B789); [EUROCONTROL: Aircraft Performance Database: A388 (Airbus A380-800)](https://contentzone.eurocontrol.int/aircraftperformance/details.aspx?ICAO=A388)