JUPITER

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Who Discovered Jupiter and When?
Jupiter was discovered in 1610 by Galileo Galilei.

How was Jupiter discovered?

Galileo Galilei found Jupiter with his rudimentary telescope.

Physical Characteristics:
Jupiter has a dense core of uncertain composition, surrounded by a helium layer of fluid metallic hydrogen that goes
80% to 90% of the planet’s diameter.

Jupiter’s atmosphere resembles the sun’s atmosphere, made up of mostly hydrogen and helium. The colourful light
and dark bands that surround Jupiter are made by strong east-west winds in the planet’s upper atmosphere,
travelling speeds of 539km/h. The white clouds in the light zones are made of crystals of frozen ammonia, while
darker clouds made of other chemicals that are found in the dark belts.

Jupiter’s Moons:
Jupiter has 79 known moons, which are mostly named after the paramours of Roman gods. The four largest moons
of Jupiter, called Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, were discovered by Galileo Galilei. Ganymede is the largest
moon in our solar system, and is larger than Mercury and Pluto. It is also the only moon known to have its own
magnetic field. Io is the most volcanically active body in our solar system. The sulphur its volcanoes spew gives Io a
blotted yellow-orange appearance. The frozen crust of Europa is made up mostly of water ice, and it may hide a
liquid ocean that contains twice as much water as Earth does. Callisto has the lowest reflectivity, or albedo, of the
four Galilean moons. This suggests that its surface may be composed of dark, colourless rock.

Jupiter’s Rings:
Jupiter had three rings that were discovered around the planet’s equator in 1979. The main ring is about 30km thick
and more than 6 400 km wide. The inner cloud-like ring, called the halo, is about 20,000 km thick. The halo is caused
by electromagnetic forces that push grains away from the plane of the main ring. The third ring, known as the
gossamer ring because of its transparency, is made up of debris from three of Jupiter’s moons, Amalthea, Thebe and
Adrastea. It extends to an outer edge of about 129,000 km from the centre of the planet and inward to about
30,000 km.

Interesting Facts:
 Jupiter is more the twice as big as all the other planet combined. Its volume could hold more than 1 300
Earths.

 If Jupiter was a basketball than earth would be a grape

 Jupiter does not have nearly enough mass to trigger a fusion reaction in its core to become a star.

 Jupiter is the fastest spinning planet in our solar system with an rotational velocity of 12.6 km/s.

 Jupiter’s magnetic force is 14 times stronger than Earth’s.

Bibliography:
Q. Choi, Charles. (2019). Jupiter: Out Solar System’s Largest Planet. Journal, Space and Astronomy, [online]. Available
at: https://www.space.com/7-jupiter-largest-planet-solar-system.html [Accessed 9 Aug. 2019].

Coffey, Jerry. (2008). Discovery of Jupiter. Journal, Astronomy, Guide to Space, [online]. Available at:
https://www.universetoday.com/15142/discovery-of-jupiter/ [Accessed 18 Jun. 2008]

Williams, Matt. (2016). Ten Interesting Facts about Jupiter. Journal, Astronomy, Guide to Space, [online]. Available
at: https://www.universetoday.com/15182/interesting-facts-about-jupiter/ [Accessed 3 Apr. 2016]