Jupiter is considered the largest planet, more then 300 times as massive as earth. It has diameter of 89000miles compared
to as of earth’s 8000.it is 483 ½ million miles away from sun. Jupiter is a colossal world so big that it could contain
all other planets in our solar system and still have lots of space to spare.
At certain times (approx.13 months or so) Jupiter is the brightest object in the sky,
shinning with a flashing white luster that rivals any star.
Jupiter completes its orbit around the sun in little less than 12 years. Like the earth
it rotates on its own axis, and for a planet its size spins very quickly indeed. A day on a Jupiter takes only 9 hours and
50 ½ minutes.
In 1973 PIONEER 10 discovered that Jupiter emits twice the amount of heat as it receives
from sun. Jupiter therefore has a internal source of heat and may have a miniature sun.
Some astronomers think that Jupiter may once have been the center of its own planetary
system, and possibly the parent of mars, Venus and earth.
In 1979 a new discovery about Jupiter was made when voyager 1 and 2 sent back pictures
of dusty rings around the planet. In December 1995, after a journey of 6 years a probe from spacecraft GALIELO landed on Jupiter.
The probe send back thousands of pictures of hot surface and 16 moons of Jupiter, until the probe was vaporized by the extremely
hot temperature of Jupiter approx.3400degrees Fahrenheit.
