Description
Jupiter, named for the king of the ancient Roman gods, is the fifth planet from our Sun and is, by far, the largest planet in the solar system – more than twice as massive as all the other planets combined. Jupiter’s stripes and swirls are actually cold, windy clouds of ammonia and water, floating in an atmosphere of hydrogen and helium. Jupiter’s iconic Great Red Spot is a giant storm bigger than Earth that has raged for hundreds of years. Jupiter is surrounded by 79 known moons. Scientists are most interested in the Galilean group– the four largest moons discovered by Galileo Galilei in 1610: Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto.
