The orbit of Jupiter is elliptical instead of circular, like that of any other planet. At its closest approach, Jupiter comes within about 4.95 astronomical units of the Sun. As we already know, an astronomical unit (AU) is the average distance from the Earth to the Sun. At its most distant point, Jupiter is approximately 5.46 AU from the Sun. Jupiter’s semi-major axis, which is an average from the farthest distance from the sun and the closest distance from the sun, is about 5.2 AU.
Jupiter is the third brightest object in the night sky and is the fifth planet from the Sun. Jupiter being farther from the Sun takes 11.86 Earth years, or 4331 Earth days for Jupiter to complete one orbit. Jupiter orbits at over 47,000 km/h. Most of the other …show more content…
It rotates too fast for seasons to occur, seeing as Jupiter rotates every 10 hours.
Jupiter has several moons; there are 64 known moons in orbit around Jupiter with more being suspected. The largest four moons are Io, which is the body with the most volcanic active in our Solar System, Europa, which is covered in frozen water, which could be covering a slushy, liquid ocean of water, Ganymede, this moon is actually larger than Mercury, and happens to be the only moon in the Solar System that generates a magnetic field on its own, and Callisto, whose surface has some small craters which show indications of recent geologic activity, but is mostly heavily cratered, some of which may have occurred shortly after the creation of the Solar System. These are the Galilean satellites. These are worlds that are diverse and interesting on their own. Jupiter has eight moons which are regular satellites and have …show more content…
Ganymede, the largest Galilean moon, is the ninth largest object in the Solar System, after the Sun and seven of the planets, due to the fact that Ganymede is larger than Mercury. All other moons that orbit Jovian planets are less than 250 km in diameter, however, most of them are barely larger than 5 km, while the orbital shapes range from nearly perfect circles to highly eccentric, and many revolve in retrograde motion, the direction opposite to Jupiter's spin. The times it takes them to rotate around Jupiter can range from seven hours, to almost three Earth years. Chinese astronomer Gan De was accredited with the first “claimed” observation of one of Jupiter's moons, around 364 BC. However, Galileo Galilei has the first confirmed observations of Jupiter's satellites in 1609 and by March 1610, he had sighted the four Galilean moons with his telescope. No other satellites were discovered until 1892 when E. E. Barnard observed Amalthea. Now, with the aid of telescopic photography, more discoveries followed quickly over the twentieth century. Thirteen moons had been discovered by the time the Voyager space probes reached Jupiter around 1979. The Voyager missions discovered an additional three inner moons: Metis, Adrastea, and Thebe, these were discovered in
Jupiter is the third brightest object in the night sky and is the fifth planet from the Sun. Jupiter being farther from the Sun takes 11.86 Earth years, or 4331 Earth days for Jupiter to complete one orbit. Jupiter orbits at over 47,000 km/h. Most of the other …show more content…
It rotates too fast for seasons to occur, seeing as Jupiter rotates every 10 hours.
Jupiter has several moons; there are 64 known moons in orbit around Jupiter with more being suspected. The largest four moons are Io, which is the body with the most volcanic active in our Solar System, Europa, which is covered in frozen water, which could be covering a slushy, liquid ocean of water, Ganymede, this moon is actually larger than Mercury, and happens to be the only moon in the Solar System that generates a magnetic field on its own, and Callisto, whose surface has some small craters which show indications of recent geologic activity, but is mostly heavily cratered, some of which may have occurred shortly after the creation of the Solar System. These are the Galilean satellites. These are worlds that are diverse and interesting on their own. Jupiter has eight moons which are regular satellites and have …show more content…
Ganymede, the largest Galilean moon, is the ninth largest object in the Solar System, after the Sun and seven of the planets, due to the fact that Ganymede is larger than Mercury. All other moons that orbit Jovian planets are less than 250 km in diameter, however, most of them are barely larger than 5 km, while the orbital shapes range from nearly perfect circles to highly eccentric, and many revolve in retrograde motion, the direction opposite to Jupiter's spin. The times it takes them to rotate around Jupiter can range from seven hours, to almost three Earth years. Chinese astronomer Gan De was accredited with the first “claimed” observation of one of Jupiter's moons, around 364 BC. However, Galileo Galilei has the first confirmed observations of Jupiter's satellites in 1609 and by March 1610, he had sighted the four Galilean moons with his telescope. No other satellites were discovered until 1892 when E. E. Barnard observed Amalthea. Now, with the aid of telescopic photography, more discoveries followed quickly over the twentieth century. Thirteen moons had been discovered by the time the Voyager space probes reached Jupiter around 1979. The Voyager missions discovered an additional three inner moons: Metis, Adrastea, and Thebe, these were discovered in