Where Is Jupiter?
Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system and it is the fifth planet from the sun; the fourth and sixth being Mars and Saturn respectively. The planet is heavier than all other planets of the solar system combined. It is the third brightest object in the night skies trailing only the Moon and Venus.
The diameter of Jupiter is approximately 143,000 kilometers; compared to the diameter of the Earth which is 12,800 kilometers. The planet is composed mainly of hydrogen and it is less dense than Earth and it has 63 confirmed moons whose physical and orbital characteristics vary widely. An Italian scientist, Galileo Galilee, was the first person in the recorded history to prove the existence of Jupiter’s moons. He discovered four moons and the rest were found subsequently by different astronomers. According to some astronomers, the seas on the Europa, a moon of the Jupiter, have more chances of life than there are on Mars. New Horizons, was the last space craft to pass by Jupiter in 2007, the space craft was meant for the planet Pluto. Galileo was the first space probe to take measurements on Jupiter and it was specifically designed to study it.
Jupiter attracts asteroids passing by towards itself, thus significantly reducing the chances of an asteroid colliding with the Earth. The existence of the planet is known since antiquity and the almost all civilizations linked the planet with some mythical god. The Romans called the planet ‘Jupiter’; the Greeks used the name ‘Zeus’; both of which would roughly translate into the ‘principal planet’. The Vietnamese call the planet ‘wood star’.
