The Giant Planet

JUPITER

-JUPITER HAS 63 MOONS, MANY MORE THAN WE THOUGHT (ABOUT 12).

HERE ARE SOME FACTS--

--If you weigh 100 pounds on Earth you would weigh 264 pounds on Jupiter.

--Jupiter has a mass 318 times greater than the Earth's and a diameter that is 11 times larger.

--It rotates so quickly that the days are only 10 hours long... But it takes 12 Earth years for Jupiter to complete an orbit around the sun.

--Jupiter completes one full rotation about its axis every 10 hours, giving it the fastest rotational speed of any planet.

---The area of Jupiter around its equator rotates faster than its polar regions by around five minutes. It makes a bulge at the equator.

--Jupiter is the fifth planet from the sun.

--Jupiter's moons are broken into two classifications: the larger Galilean moons and the smaller moons.

--The Galilean moons are named after Galileo who discovered them in 1610. These moons are Ganymede, Io, Europa, and Callisto.

--Jupiter’s core is rocky, scientists believe that it is 45 times heavier than the Earth

HistoryJupiter was the king of the gods in Roman mythology. The ancient Greeks named the planet after Zeus, the king of the Greek pantheon.

--The colorful bands of Jupiter are arranged in dark belts and light zones created by strong east-west winds

--The white clouds in the zones are made of crystals of frozen ammonia

--The deepest visible levels are blue clouds

Jupiter’s Bands

This is Jupiter’s position in the Solar System

The Great Red Spot, a giant hurricane-like storm has been going on for more than 300 years.

--Jupiter has the biggest moon in the Solar System, Ganymede. It is even bigger than Mercury and Pluto.

--Jupiter has a ring just like Saturn and Uranus.

--Jupiter is covered by an ocean of hydrogen with a sludge-like consistency.

--Unlike other planets, Jupiter sends out a strong radio radiation that can be detected on Earth.