Gas Giant (Jovian)

Multicolored (cloud bands)

Diameter: 88,000 miles

Rotation: 0.4 days

Orbit: 12 years

Temperature Average: -108 C

Moons: 63

Number from the sun: 5

Distance from the sun: 483 million miles

Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system. It is made of gas. It has cloud belts that are different colors. Jupiter has sixty-three moons! Jupiter is a thousand times larger than the Earth. There is a large red spot on Jupiter's surface. This spot is a storm that has been going on for over 300 years. Jupiter has 63 moons!

Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun. Jupiter is a very bright planet. It is yellow and white. Jupiter was named by the Romans. Jupiter was the name of the king of their gods, and they called this bright planet the same name.

It takes Jupiter almost twelve Earth years to go around the Sun. A year on Jupiter is the same as twelve years on Earth. One day on Jupiter is about ten hours long.

An astronomer named Galileo studied Jupiter. He saw that Jupiter had four little moons. Once we built stronger telescopes, we found even more moons. We saw a big spot on Jupiter and discovered that the spot was like a hurricane.

When we see Jupiter, we mostly see clouds that are made of poisonous gas. We also saw that Jupiter has a tiny ring around it. We also studied Jupiter's moons, and found that one of them had a volcano on it. The volcano erupted! No other planet or moon has been found with a volcano that is active. That means that the volcano is erupting or doing something.

Jupiter is called the "giant planet" because it is so big. It is the largest planet of all. If you measured Jupiter around the middle, it would be over 88,000 miles. Over a thousand Earths would fit inside Jupiter!

Think about it:  Why do we need telescopes to see the moons on Jupiter? What else can we see with telescopes?

To learn more about Jupiter, visit this site:  http://www.worldalmanacforkids.com/explore/space/jupiter.html