Lesson Five:

Jupiter 

This planet is one of the "gas giants", because Jupiter is primarily composed of gaseous or not-solid materials. Before reaching any of these Outer Solar System planets, one would have to cross the perilous Asteroid Belt. 

Comets, Asteroids and Meteors: Most of the asteroids in our solar system are found in the Asteroid Belt, which is made of around 1.1 and 1.9 million larger asteroids and millions of smaller ones. It is said to be formed during the beginning of our solar system and the creation of the planets. It is thanks to the gravitational force from Jupiter that it exists. Asteroids are also known as "minor planets", or, if you want to get fancy, "planetoids". They are literally left overs, composed of what was left during the formation of the solar system, and various rocks and mineral formations. They possess no atmosphere of their own and can get up to 580 miles in diameter. The ones that are not in the Asteroid Belt can be found in the orbital path between Earth and Mars, still close to Jupiter. These are called Near-Earth Asteroids (hmm, I wonder why) and are divided into three groups: Apollos, Amors and Atens.  Asteroids are most commonly confused with comets. Comets are made of frozen water (ice, I believe) as well as dust particles and other frozen things, like methane and carbon dioxide. Meteoroids are smaller pieces of space debris such as metal and rock, generally only half a mile in diameter. They are only known as meteors when they enter Earth's atmosphere, but they usually burn but before doing so. 

The Great Giant, Jupiter: Jupiter is named for the Roman god of the sky and thunder, king of the gods. It is approximately 5.2 AU from the sun. Jupiter is the fourth brightest objet in our sky and the largest planet. It is estimated to be 2.5 times the mass of anything else in our universe, except the sun. Its core is most likely made of liquid metallic hydrogen covering rock. It's atmosphere is made of 90% hydrogen and 10% helium with traces of water, ammonia, and methane. When observing Jupiter, one can see "bands" sneaking around the planet. Dark brown belts represent low pressure systems, white lighter and white belts are high pressure. One of the most notable features of this great gas giant is a large red spot. This is, in fact, a high-pressure storm much like a hurricane on Earth that has been in existence for over 600 years. Jupiter is also one of the fastest moving in our solar system. One day can be only ten hours and it complete an orbit around the sun every 11.86 years. Jupiter has 67 known moons, and four of them are known as the famous Galilean Moons. A mathematician discovered them in the year 1610 and they are known as Callisto, Europa, Ganymede and Io. 9 space crafts have visited Jupiter.