Welcome back my fellow learners, I plan to produce a series of blogs on our solar system, so stay tuned.

Jupiter is the fourth brightest planet in our solar system, only the Sun, Venus and Moon are brighter. It is one of planets which can be seen by the naked eye from Earth.

Around the 7^th or 8^th century BC, the Babylonians were one of the first civilisations to record their sighting of Jupiter. Jupiter was actually named after the king of the Roman gods. In Greece, it was named after the god of Thunder, Zeus. The Mesopotamians thought it to be their god Marduk and the patron of Babylon. Germanic cultures said it was Donar, also referred to a the mighty Thor.

Jupiter is said to have the shortest day of all the planets, as it turns once every 9 hours and 55 minutes. This fast rotation has flattened the planet, which gives it an oblate appearance.

Jupiter only orbits the Sun every 11.8 years, which from our point makes it appear to move slowly, taking months to go from one constellation to another.

Jupiter also has unique cloud features, the atmosphere of Jupiter is segmented into cloud belts and areas. They are made mainly from sulphur, ammonia crystals, and a mixture of the two.

The red spot seen on Jupiter is actually said to be a storm, and has been going for the last 350 years, and is so big that 3 of our planet can be fitted inside of it.

Jupiter’s insides are made up of metal, rock, and hydrogen compounds, beneath Jupiter’s atmosphere, are layers of hydrogen gas, liquid metallic hydrogen, and ice to name but a few.

Jupiter’s moon known as Ganymede is the biggest one in the entire solar system,
it measure 5,268 km across, which makes it bigger than Mercury.