Jupiter

Position:	Fifth from Sun
Distance from Sun:	778,330,000 km
Jupiter Day:	9.8 Earth Hours
Jupiter Year:	11.9 Earth Years
Orbital Speed:	13.1 km/sec
Eccentricity of Orbit:	0.0483
Satellites:	16 (plus Rings)
Equatorial Diameter:	142,984 km
Polar Diameter:	133,708 km
Mass:	1.900e27 kg
Major Atmospheric Gas:	Hydrogen

Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, is 318 times larger than Earth.
Jupiter is the fourth brightest object to be seen in the sky. Occassionally Mars will appear to be brighter than Jupiter in the Earth's sky.
Jupiter spins faster on its axis than any other planet in our solar system. One day on Jupiter is 9.8 Earth hours
Jupiter is a gas planet, composed largely of hydrogen (89%) and helium (11%), with traces of methane, water vapor, and ammonia. The gas gets denser with depth turning into liquid toward the center. The tops of the gas clouds in the atmosphere make up the colorful texture on Jupiter.
The Great Red Spot is a high pressure region with clouds, moving in a counter-clockwise direction, thought to contain red phosphorus. The cloud tops in the Spot are higher than the surrounding clouds. The Great Red Spot is about 12,000 by 25,000 km.
Like Saturn, Jupiter has rings, though they are much smaller, fainter, and darker. Jupiter's rings were discovered by the Voyager 1 in 1979.
In 1610, Galileo discovered the four major satellites that orbit Jupiter, with his small telescope. This set of moons, known as the Galilean moons, are Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto .
The Pioneer 10 was the first spacecraft to visit Jupiter in 1973, and was followed by visits from Pioneer 11, Voyager 1, Voyager 2, and Ulysses. The Galileo arrived in the Jovian system in late 1995 and will remain in orbit there until 1997 (two years).
Jupiter, sometimes called Jove, was the King of the gods in Roman mythology and the son of Saturn.

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