- Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System.
- It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined.
- Jupiter is the third-brightest natural object in the Earth’s night sky after the Moon and Venus.
- It has been observed since pre-historic times and is named after the Roman god Jupiter, the king of the gods, because of its observed size.
- Jupiter is primarily composed of hydrogen, but helium constitutes one quarter of its mass and one tenth of its volume.
- 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.
- Jupiter has 80 known moons and possibly many more.
- Of these, 60 moons are less than 10 km in diameter.
- Pioneer 10 was the first spacecraft to visit Jupiter, making its closest approach to the planet in December 1973.
- The average distance between Jupiter and the Sun is 778 million km (about 5.2 times the average distance between Earth and the Sun, or 5.2 AU) and it completes an orbit every 11.86 years.
- Jupiter’s rotation is the fastest of all the Solar System’s planets, completing a rotation on its axis in slightly less than ten hours.
- Galileo Galilei discovered the four largest moons of Jupiter (now known as the Galilean moons) using a telescope; thought to be the first telescopic observation of moons other than Earth’s.
Also Read Facts about other planets in Solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune
