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
6 THE BIGGEST PLANET Jupiter is named after the ruler of the ancient Roman gods The same god was called Zeus by the ancient Greeks Jupiter is by far the largest planet in the solar system Jupiter is so huge that more than 1,300 Earths would fit inside of it The planet measures about 273,000 miles 439,000 kilometers around Its diameter is about 89,000 miles 143,000 km Jupiter’s mass is also much greater than Earth’s Because of its huge mass Jupiter has very strong gravity Its gravity affects other objects in the solar system The Romans believed that Jupiter ruled from the heavens and controlled the weather
7 THINK ABOUT IT Why do you think Jupiter is named after the ruler of the gods It changes the paths of comets It creates gaps in the main asteroid belt The belt is a thick ring between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter that contains most of the solar system’s asteroids Astron omers think that when the solar system was forming the pull of gravity from the object that became Jupiter prevented the asteroids there from clumping together to form a planet Like the rest of the solar system Jupiter formed from material that was left over after the sun formed
