CONTENTS MEET JUPITER 4 THE BIGGEST PLANET 6 A GAS GIANT 8 ORBIT AND SPIN 12 APPEARANCE AND ATMOSPHERE 14 MAGNETIC FIELD 16 JUPITER’S RINGS 18 JUPITER’S MOONS 20 EXPLORING JUPITER 24 LIFE ON JUPITER 28 GLOSSARY 30 FOR MORE INFORMATION 31 INDEX 32
4 MEET JUPITER Our solar system is made up of the sun and everything that orbits or circles around it Other than the sun the largest bodies of the solar system are eight planets includ ing our planet Earth Our solar system also includes smaller objects such as dwarf planets asteroids comets and moons Counting out from the sun Jupiter is the fifth of the eight planets Earth is the third Jupiter is more than five times farther from the sun than Earth is Jupiter is also You can see Jupiterʼs colorful stripes in this image of the planet which was taken by the Voyager 1 spacecraft on January 9 1979
5 Planets are large round bodies that orbit or travel around stars Unlike smaller objects that orbit stars a planet is so massive that its gravity clears the path it follows by pulling objects toward itself VOCABULARY the largest planet in the solar system Jupiter is so big that all the other planets put to gether would fit inside of it Jupiter is one of the brightest objects in the night sky Through a telescope people on Earth can see Jupiter’s colorful stripes Unlike Earth Jupiter has no solid ground It is made up of gases and liquids Scientists have sent several missions to learn about the planet Jupiter Pioneer 10 seen in this drawing became the first to pass near Jupiter in 1973
