Jupiter: Fift planet frae the sun

It is a gas giant wi a mass ae-thoosandt that o the Sun but is twa-an-a-hauf times the mass o aw the ither planets in the Solar System pitten thegither. Jupiter is clessifee'd as a gas giant alang wi Saturn, Uranus an Neptune. Thegither, thir fower planets is whiles referred tae as the Jovian or ooter planets. The planet wis kent bi astronomers o auncient times, an wis associate wi the meethology an religious beliefs o mony culturs. The Romans named the planet efter the Roman god Jupiter. Whan viewed frae the Yird, Jupiter can reach an apparent magnitude o −2.94, bricht eneuch tae cast shaidaes, an makkin it on average the third-brichtest object in the nicht lift efter the Muin an Venus. (Maurs can briefly match Jupiter's brichtness at certaint pynts in its orbit.)

Jupiter is componed maistly o hydrogen wi a quarter o its mass bein helium, awtho helium only comprises aboot a tent o the nummer o molecules. It micht an aa hae a rocky core o hivier elements, but lik the ither gas giants, Jupiter disna hae a weel-defined solit surface. Acause o its rapid rotation, the planet's shape is that o an oblate spheroid (it haes a slicht but noticeable bulge aroond the equator). The ooter atmosphere is visibly segregatit intae several bands at different latitudes, resultin in turbulence an stairms alang thair interactin boundaries. A prominent result is the Great Reid Spot, a giant stairm that is kent tae hae existit syne at least the 17t century whan it wis first seen bi telescope. Surroondin Jupiter is a faint planetar ring system an a pouerful magnetosphere. Thare are atour at least 67 muins, includin the fower lairge muins cried the Galilean muins that wis first discovered bi Galileo Galilei in 1610. Ganymede, the lairgest o thir muins, haes a diameter greater than that o the planet Mercury.

Jupiter haes been explored on several occasions bi robotic spacecraft, maist notably durin the early Pioneer an Voyager flyby missions an later bi the Galileo orbiter. The maist recent probe tae visit Jupiter wis the Pluto-boond New Horizons spacecraft in late Februar 2007. The probe uised the gravity frae Jupiter tae increase its speed. Futur tairgets for exploration in the Jovian system includes the possible ice-covert liquid ocean on the muin Europa.