The Jupiter Portal
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Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet within the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass slightly less than one-thousandth of the Sun but is two and a half times the mass of all the other planets in our Solar System combined. Jupiter is classified as a gas giant along with Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Together, these four planets are sometimes referred to as the Jovian or outer planets. The planet was known by astronomers of ancient times and was associated with the mythology and religious beliefs of many cultures. The Romans named the planet after the Roman god Jupiter. When viewed from Earth, Jupiter can reach an apparent magnitude of −2.94, making it on average the third-brightest object in the night sky after the Moon and Venus. (Mars can briefly match Jupiter's brightness at certain points in its orbit.)
Jupiter is primarily composed of hydrogen with a quarter of its mass being helium; it may also have a rocky core of heavier elements. Because of its rapid rotation, Jupiter's shape is that of an oblate spheroid (it possesses a slight but noticeable bulge around the equator). The outer atmosphere is visibly segregated into several bands at different latitudes, resulting in turbulence and storms along their interacting boundaries. A prominent result is the Great Red Spot, a giant storm that is known to have existed since at least the 17th century when it was first seen by telescope. Surrounding the planet is a faint planetary ring system and a powerful magnetosphere. There are also at least 63 moons, including the four large moons called the Galilean moons that were first discovered by Galileo Galilei in 1610. Ganymede, the largest of these moons, has a diameter greater than that of the planet Mercury. Jupiter has been explored on several occasions by robotic spacecraft, most notably during the early Pioneer and Voyager flyby missions and later by the Galileo orbiter. The most recent probe to visit Jupiter was the Pluto-bound New Horizons spacecraft in late February 2007. The probe used the gravity from Jupiter to increase its speed. Future targets for exploration in the Jovian system include the possible ice-covered liquid ocean on the moon Europa.
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Approved in February 1969, Pioneer 10 and twin probe Pioneer 11, were the first to be designed for exploring the outer solar system.
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Topics
Jupiter Atmosphere ˑ Exploration (Voyager 2) ˑ Rings
- Major Moons ˑ Io ˑ Europa ˑ Ganymede ˑ Callisto
Astronomers: Galileo Galilei ˑ Gan De ˑ Gerard Kuiper ˑ Giovanni Domenico Cassini
See Also: Formation and evolution of the Solar System ˑ Gas Giant ˑ Nebular hypothesis
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Italicized articles are on dwarf planets or minor moons.
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In the news
- January 30: Scientists find ancient solar system in Milky Way galaxy
- January 11: SpaceX launches fifth resupply rocket to International Space Station
- January 10: Researchers say light signal from space suggests merging black holes
- December 8: Orion Spacecraft accomplishes first spaceflight test
- November 13: Philae space probe lands on comet
- October 30: Launch failure occurs at Virginia spaceport
- August 23: SpaceX test rocket crashes in Texas
- August 16: US researchers find a large asteroid held together by forces other than gravity
- July 3: Indian space agency launches five foreign satellites
- April 24: Astronomers spot two supermassive black holes orbiting each other
- March 28: Soyuz TMA-12M arrives at International Space Station after delay
- March 1: 715 exoplanets discovered by Kepler telescope
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