Episode guide
Jupiter: A World Made of Sky
Earth is a ball of rock wrapped in a thin coat of air. Jupiter is the opposite. This episode travels past the Moon and past Mars to the largest planet in the solar system, where the sky is not a coat on the world. The sky is the world.
The science, gently
- Jupiter has no surface to stand on. There are no mountains beneath the clouds, no valleys, no ocean floor. Going down simply means the sky keeps getting thicker.
- Deep inside, the pressure grows so enormous that hydrogen stops behaving like a gas and begins to flow like a liquid metal.
- Winds race east and west in opposite directions, and storms begin where they slide past each other. On Earth a hurricane ends when it reaches land. Jupiter has no land, which is why the Great Red Spot has been turning for nearly two hundred years and is still wide enough to swallow the Earth.
Wonder together
- What do you think it would feel like to fall through a planet made entirely of sky?
- A storm here ends when it runs into the ground. What could ever stop a storm with nothing to run into?
- If you could send one message down into Jupiter, what would you want it to bring back?
Tonight's calm-down
There's so much more to explore.
The episode is a whole story on its own. But if the wondering keeps going after the audio ends, the Family Guide opens this one all the way up: the same calm voice, turned into something you can do together at the table the next morning.
- Questions written for your child's age, not just their reading level
- One hands-on experiment, simple enough for tonight
- The science words behind it, in plain language
- A printable to color, keep, or fill in
Two versions inside: one for ages 4–6, one for ages 7–10.
Free to read while the library grows.
Listen to this episode.
Tomorrow night
If you are still wondering, the deepest gravity there is.
Black HolesThe deep rivers of space
Ideas inside this one: gravity, air and pressure.