Jupiter is the largest world in our solar system; four of its moons are the size of planets. It is different in structure from the solid inner planets. Apart from a small rocky core, Jupiter is mainly hydrogen and helium. Below the cloudy atmosphere, the pressure is so great that these are liquid rather than gas. Deep down, the liquid hydrogen behaves like a metal. As a result, Jupiter has a strong magnetic field and fierce radiation belts. Jupiter emits more heat radiation than it receives from the Sun, because it continues shrinking at a rate of a fraction of an inch per year. Had Jupiter been only 13 times more massive, this contraction would have made the center hot enough for nuclear fusion reactions to begin, though not to be sustained for as long as in a star.
