Jupiter
Mythology
Jupiter was named after the king of the gods (Zeus to the Greeks), and it certainly lives up to its name. Jupiter sets many records as the king of the planets. It is by far the largest planet with a diameter of 142,984 km (11.23 Earth diameters). It is also has the fastest rotation. One day on Jupiter is only 9.8 hours, but the years are long, with one year on Jupiter being 11.8 Earth years. This is because of its distance from the Sun. Jupiter is 778.33 million km (5.2 AU) away from the sun.
 Facts
Jupiter’s fast rotation has some odd side effects. It produces winds on Jupiter that are extremely fierce. Since Jupiter is a gas giant, this means that not only is there gas everywhere, but winds pushing it around. With this kind of a reaction, storms are likely. In fact, Jupiter’s Great Red Spot is just a monstrous storm capable of swallowing the Earth. Jupiter’s fast rotation also gives it a noticeable bulge around the middle. All of the planets are effected a little bit like this by their rotation, but only Jupiter has this effect.
Viewing Jupiter
Observing Jupiter is not very hard at all. It is the fourth brightest object in the sky at -2.5. Jupiter is a easily recognizable once you know where to look. Jupiter has at least 16 known satellites, many of which are visible with a good telescope. When the famous astronomer Galileo focused his new invention, the telescope, on Jupiter, he found that four stars around it would actually move within hours. These ‘stars’ that Galileo found are now called the Galilean moons. These four moons are all extremely unique. Io is one of the most geologically unstable places in the solar system, Europa is covered in ice, Ganymede is the largest moon in the solar system and Callisto is literally covered in craters.
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