-written by Vanij, reviewed by Ankush.
There are more planets than stars in our galaxy. We don’t even know much about our planet. Understanding the other 7 planets of our solar system is a difficult task and has intrigued mankind for eons.
Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system and the fifth planet from the sun, is believed to be the oldest planet in the solar system. Jupiter can be seen using a telescope and is one of the five planets visible to the naked eye.
Here are some fascinating facts about this planet.

Fact 1
Jupiter is also the name of the chief God of Roman mythology and is identical to Zeus of Greek mythology. Jupiter, sometimes called Jove, is the God of sky and thunder.
Know more about the names of other planets- https://stargazingmumbai.in/gods-of-the-planets/

Fact 2
Jupiter rotates the fastest of all Solar system’s planet-completing a day in almost 10 hours (also called a Jovian day), more than twice as fast as earth.
It takes Jupiter nearly 12 years to orbit around the sun and it is also called a Jovian year.
Fact 3
Jupiter is by far the largest and heaviest planet present in our solar system. Jupiter is 2.5 times heavier than the mass of all the other planets combined and is almost 11 times larger than Earth.
Fact 4
Jupiter, along with Saturn, is a gas giant. It means that it is mostly composed of hydrogen and helium and mountain and valleys are absent like that of Earth. If you were to send a probe into Jupiter’s atmosphere, it would never find a solid surface and would only continue to find thick clouds until it reaches the core. And even when it reaches the core, the nature of the core to this date remains unknown. Some scientists theorize that it might be a hot molten ball of liquid, while others suggest that it could be just solid rock.
5 Jupiter’s moons
In 1610, when Galileo first viewed this planet using his telescope, he discovered four moons that are Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto, now also called the Galilean satellites. The fifth known Jovian moon, Amalthea was also visually discovered in 1892. Jupiter has 79 known natural satellites, 53 of which are named while 26 moons awaiting confirmation of a discovery. All the other satellites were found in pictures taken by Voyager spacecraft or by Earth-based telescopes. The moons of Jupiter are classified as ‘regular’ and ‘irregular’ depending on the orbits of the moon. There may be a smaller moon of Jupiter that has not been discovered yet.

6 Jupiter’s Rings-
Along with Saturn and Uranus, Jupiter also has a faint ring system which mostly consists of dust. It has four main components–the thick inner ‘halo ring’, the ‘main ring’, and Amalthea and Thebe gossamer rings, named after the moons the dust is formed of. The main ring of Jupiter was first discovered by the Voyager 1 spacecraft when it crossed the planet’s equatorial plane.

7 Life on Jupiter
It is not the most ideal candidate for being a planet for life to occur. Regions of extreme temperatures, and pressures make it difficult for organisms to adapt to the planet. But on the other hand, the moons of the planet, most likely Europa is one of the likeliest places to find life in our solar system. A liquid-water ocean lies beneath the frozen crust of Europa.
8 Jupiter’s Great Red Spot
It houses the biggest storm in our solar system. It is a gigantic storm called the Great Red Storm and is an anticyclone vortex swirling around with speeds greater than 400 km/h. It is twice the size of Earth, circling in the Southern Hemisphere of the planet. It is believed to have existed for at least 150 years but could be more than that. The size of the spot has been decreasing since its discovery.

9 Auroras of Jupiter
Just as aurora borealis and aurora australis are visible in the northern and southern hemispheres and can be seen using specialized telescopes or in some cases, the naked eye, Jupiter has its Auroras. First imaged by the Voyager on its nightside, it is larger than our entire planet.
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