Atmosphere of Jupiter Atmosphere of Jupiter The atmosphere of Jupiter is the largest planetary atmosphere in the Solar System. It is mostly made of molecular hydrogen and helium in roughly solar proportions; other chemical compounds are present only in small amounts and include methane, ammonia, hydrogen sulfide and water. Although water is thought to reside deep in the atmosphere, its directly measured concentration is very low. The nitrogen, sulfur, and noble gas abundances in Jupiter's atmosphere exceed solar values by a factor of about three. The atmosphere of Jupiter lacks a clear lower boundary and gradually transitions into the liquid interior of the
Atmosphere of Jupiter comprehensively understood of those of all the gas giants because it was observed directly by the "Galileo" atmospheric probe when it entered the Jovian atmosphere on December 7, 1995. Other sources of information about Jupiter's atmospheric composition include the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO), the "Galileo" and "Cassini" orbiters, and Earth-based observations. The two main constituents of the Jovian atmosphere are molecular hydrogen () and helium. The helium abundance is relative to molecular hydrogen by number of molecules, and its mass fraction is , which is slightly lower than the Solar System's primordial value. The reason for this low abundance is