The Great Giant

Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun, which is 5.2 times the average distance of the Earth from the Sun. The planet Jupiter is named after the Roman god Jupiter or Jove, who was deemed the king of the gods, thunder, and the sky. The name is fitting, for not only is Jupiter the fourth brightest object in our sky after the Sun, our own Moon, and Venus, but it is also by far the largest planet in the solar system. It is approximately 2.5 times the mass of all other objects in our solar system, excepting the sun.

Its core is not known for certain, but it likely possessed a rocky core with a layer of liquid, metallic hydrogen primarily above the core making up the majority of the planet. Jupiter’s atmosphere is approximately 90% hydrogen and 10% helium with traces of water, ammonia, and methane. The planet also has a bright hue in many areas that may come from traces of other elements, such as sulphur.

Observing Jupiter, one can see many differently colored “bands” running around the planet. These latitudinal bands represent high-powered winds, each band blowing in a different direction. Darker, brown belts represent lower pressure systems, while the white and lighter belts are higher 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.

This planet is also one of the fastest moving in our solar system. One day on Jupiter takes only 10 hours, while one complete orbit around the Sun takes approximately 11.86 years.

Although Jupiter currently has 67 known moons, the four most famous are known as the Galilean Moons. The mathematician discovered these four moons – Io, Callisto, Europa, and Ganymede – in the year 1610. This discovery was the first discovery of motion that did not seem to be geocentric, or centered around the Earth. These many moons orbiting Jupiter seem to give off dust as they move, and this creates faint visible rings around the massive planet. 

The spacecraft Pioneer 10 visited the distant gas giant in 1973, and was the first to record these rings. Subsequently, there have been 8 other spacecraft that have passed by Jupiter, the most recent being New Horizons, a NASA space probe that will be exploring the outer reaches of our solar system.