The Universe – Jupiter the Giant Planet

Planet Earth, The Great Red Spot and Planet Jupiter Size Comparison

Today on Far Future Horizons we will embark on an odyssey of over eight hundred million kilometers to a mini solar system of over 60 moons orbiting a giant gas planet over one thousand times larger than our own world.

Jupiter and the Four Galilean Moons

Its atmosphere is graced by flowing pastel color streamers and spots that hold us entranced by their strange beauty, but contain violent storms and jet streams. These complex arrays of colors and dynamic atmospheric phenomena also reveal a complex organic chemistry is percolating within the cloud tops of Jupiter.

Jupiter’s Great Red Spot 

Even a modest telescope will easily show Jupiter’s Great Red Spot and the four Galilean moons as they weave their way around it.

Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet within the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass slightly less than one-thousandth of the Sun but is two and a half times the mass of all the other planets in our Solar System combined. Jupiter is so massive; it can hold 1,321 Earth sized planets within its volume.

Jupiter is also a mini solar system in its own right, with over sixty moons orbiting around it. Could one of these moons Europa, harbor life under its icy exterior?

The Universe is available on DVD from Amazon.com and the History Channel’s online store.

The Universe – Jupiter the Giant Planet

The Universe S01 E04 - Jupiter The Giant Planet by kaanozten
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