Jupiter Fun Facts

Jupiter Fun Facts Astronomy Name: Period:

red Galilean 254 gravity gas System Sun axis Jovian largest moon field 1610 poles fifth

Jupiter is the ______planet from the Sun and the ______planet in our Solar System. It is a gas giant planet that has a thick atmosphere, dozens of moons, and a dark, barely-visible ring. Jupiter's most prominent features are bands across its latitudes and a great ______spot (which is a huge storm). Jupiter was named after the Roman primary god, Jupiter.

Jupiter is composed mostly of ______. This enormous planet radiates twice as much heat as it absorbs from the ______. It also has an extremely strong magnetic ______. The planet is slightly flattened at its ______and it bulges out a bit at the equator.

It takes Jupiter 9.8 Earth hours to revolve around its ______(this is a Jovian day). It takes 11.86 Earth years for Jupiter to orbit the Sun once (this is a ______year).

Jupiter's diameter is 88,700 miles (142,800 km). This is a little more than 11 times the diameter of the Earth. Jupiter is so big that all the other planets in our Solar ______could fit inside Jupiter (if it were hollow).

Jupiter's mass is about 318 times the mass of the Earth, but the ______on Jupiter is only about 2.54 times of the gravity on Earth. This is because Jupiter is such a large planet (and the gravitational force a planet exerts upon an object at the planet's surface is proportional to its mass and to the inverse of its radius squared). A 100-pound person would weigh ______pounds on Jupiter. In ______, Galileo first discovered the four largest moons of Jupiter, Io (which is volcanically active), Europa, Ganymede (the largest of Jupiter's moons), and Callisto; these moons are known as the ______moons. Ganymede is the largest ______in the Solar System. In Summary:

1. Is Jupiter composed mostly of solids or gases?______

2. Jupiter is about 11-times, 111-times or 1,111-times bigger than the Earth. ______

3. How many moons orbit Jupiter?______

4. Who discovered the four largest moons of Jupiter in the 1600's?______

5. What is the major component of Jupiter's atmosphere? ______

6. How long is a Jovian day (a day on Jupiter)? ______

7. How long is a Jovian year?______

8. Is Jupiter's Great Red Spot a deposit of iron-rich soil, a storm, or a huge crater? ______

9. Does Jupiter have any rings? ______

10. Can you ever see Jupiter from Earth without using a telescope? ______