Our Introduction In our solar system, nine planets circle around our Sun. The Sun sits in the middle while the planets travel in circular paths (called orbits) around it. These nine planets travel in the same direction (counter- clockwise looking down from the Sun's north pole). The picture on the right shows the different paths and positions of each planet.

About Our Solar System There are nine planets in our solar system Mercury,Jupiter,Venus,Saturn,Earth,Uranus,Mars,Neptune and Pluto. The solar system is made up of two parts: The inner solar system contains Mercury,Venus,Earth and Mars. The outer solar system contains Jupiter,Saturn,Uranus,Neptune and Pluto Scientists say that nine planets are changed into eight planets because Pluto is not a planet anymore. Scientists are still unsure as to exactly what it’s made of. Sometimes you can see the nine(eight)planets in the sky at night. Some is by using the telescope and some not. The brightest planet is Venus with an apparent magnitude of-4.6.

About Jupiter Jupiter does not have a solid surface due to its gaseous composition. The swirls and bands we see when looking at Jupiter are the tops of clouds high in its atmosphere. Jupiter has high speed winds that whip by at more than 400 mph! These winds are trapped in the planet's wide bands of latitude. Each band has a slightly different chemical make-up and temperature from the others. This gives it a color which is different from surrounding bands. The light colored bands are called "zones." The dark colored bands are called "belts." The vivid colors seen in Jupiter's clouds are probably the result of subtle chemical reactions in Jupiter's atmosphere. The clouds are a different color, depending on its altitude. Blue clouds are lowest, followed by brown and white clouds. Red clouds are the highest. Sometimes we see the lower cloud layers through holes in the upper cloud layers.

About Jupiter Part 2 Jupiter's most outstanding and interesting feature is called "The Great Red Spot." The Great Red Spot is an oval about 12,000 km by 25,000 km - big enough to hold two Earths!12,000 km25,000 kmEarths Jupiter also has other smaller similar spots. The Great Red Spot is a high-pressure region whose cloud tops are much higher and colder than the surrounding areas. Jupiter has faint rings like Saturn’s, but much smaller. Unlike Saturn’s, Jupiter’s rings are dark. They’re probably composed of very small grains of rocky material. The visible surface of Jupiter is a deck of clouds of ammonia crystals, the tops of which occur at a level where the pressure is about half that at Earth’s surface.

When It’s Evening Why don’t you try to look for Jupiter at the evening. When it is in the nighttime sky, Jupiter is often the brightest “star” in the sky (it second only to Venus, which is seldom visivle in the dark sky). The four large Galilean moons are easily visible with a pair of binoculars. You can even see a few of Jupiter’s bands and the Great Red Spots with a small astronomical telescope.

About Jupiter Part 3 Jupiter is the largest of the nine planets, more than 10 times the diameter of Earth and more than 300 times its mass. In fact, the mass of Jupiter is almost 2.5 times that of all the other planets combined. Being composed largely of the light elements hydrogen and helium, its mean density is only times that of water. The mean density of Earth is times that of water. The pull of gravity on Jupiter at the top of the clouds at the equator is 2.4 times as great as gravity's pull at the surface of Earth at the equator. The bulk of Jupiter rotates once in 9 hours, 55.5 minutes, although the period determined by watching cloud features differs by up to five minutes due to intrinsic cloud motions.

About Jupiter Part 4 The meteorology of Jupiter is very complex and not well understood. Even in small telescopes, a series of parallel light bands called zones and darker bands called belts is quite obvious. The polar regions of the planet are dark. Also present are light and dark ovals, the most famous of this being The Great Red Spot. The innermost of the four large satellites of Jupiter,Io, has numerous large volcanoes that emit sulfur and sulfur dioxide. The two Voyager spacecraft discovered that Jupiter has faint dust rings extending out to about 53,000 kilometers (33,000 miles) above the atmosphere. The brightest ring is the outermost, having only 800-kilometre (500 mile) width. Next inside comes a fainter ring about 5,000 kilometres(3,100 miles) wide while very tenuous dust extends down to the atmosphere.

Facts About Jupiter ~Jupiter is a giant gas planet which is made up of about 90% hydrogen and 10% helium. giant gas planet ~Jupiter was first visited by the Pioneer 10 spacecraft in It was later visited by Pioneer 11, Voyager 1, Voyager 2 and Ulysses. The spacecraft Galileo is currently in orbit around Jupiter and will be sending back data for at least the next two years. Pioneer 10Pioneer 11Voyager 1Voyager 2UlyssesGalileo ~Jupiter is so big that you could cram 1,000 Earths inside of it! That's *mighty big*! ~It is thought that Jupiter's "Great Red Spot" is a storm of swirling gas that has lasted for hundreds of years. Scientists are still unsure as to how such a storm could last for so long. ~Jupiter has 16 known moons! There are four large "Galilean" moons, and 12 small ones.Galilean This is the symbol for Jupiter: Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and by far the largest of all nine planets.Sun Jupiter is more than twice as massive as all the other planets combined - It's 318 times bigger than the Earth!Earth Jupiter is a big planet. Jupiter is a gas planet.

Questions and Answers How many planets are their in our solar system? A:Nine planets but it is already eight because scientists say that Pluto is not a planet. Is Jupiter a big planet or a small planet? A:Jupiter is a big planet Can you often see Jupiter at the nighttime sky? A: Yes What did the two Voyager spacecraft discovered about Jupiter