What Do You Know About Jupiter?
How many moons encircle Jupiter?
- Saturn is the only planet in our Solar System that has more moons than Jupiter.
What is the Roman god Jupiter known for?
- Jupiter was the Roman equivalent of the Greek god Zeus, and was the king of the Roman pantheon as well as representing storms, lightning, and thunder.
How long does one year on Jupiter last, compared to Earth years?
- Because Jupiter is far from the Sun and so immense, its orbit takes quite a while— one Jovian year is nearly 12 Earth years!
Who was the first to discover Jupiter?
- One of the most prominent astronomers who discovered many planets, Galileo recorded the first observations on Jupiter in 1610.
How many more asteroid, comet, and debris impacts occur on Jupiter than happen on Earth?
- With its incredibly strong gravitational pull, Jupiter constantly attracts satellites of all kinds that crash into the surface.
How many rings does Jupiter have?
- However, these rings are much, much smaller than Saturn's iconic rings.
How much bigger is Jupiter than Earth?
- Jupiter is the biggest planetary object in our Solar System.
How thick are the clouds that cover the surface of Jupiter?
- Though Jupiter is known for the swirling and colorful clouds that smother its surface, this atmospheric band is only about 50 kilometers thick.
How long has the Great Red Spot, Jupiter's most notable feature and biggest storm, been there?
- For over 300 years, people have been able to see the massive storm on Jupiter's surface, first identified in 1665.
Who was the astronomer that first discovered the Great Red Spot in Jupiter's stormy atmosphere?
- Though the Italian astronomer was unsure of what the anomaly was when discovered in the 1600s, by the 1900s scientists began to identify it as a permanent storm.
