While Earth and the life on this planet certainly fascinate me, let's look at another interesting planet for a moment, Jupiter! Its long interested astronomers and since various spacecraft like the Pioneer and Voyager have brought us new and varied understanding of the planet and its moons, we are a long wayoff from understanding everything about this planet named by the Romans. A space flight to this planet doesn't come without its risks as you can see by the depiction of where asteroids are found enroute.
The Red Spot is familiar to most everyone in one way or another. Its a cyclonic disturbance that has been ongoing for centuries (atleast the 17th century). The images above and below, all from Nasa, give us an idea.
Then the Aurora borealis at Jupiter's North Pole is fascinating as well. I didn't know until I did this research that the Jovian planet even had one (
Aurora). Then for a long time Saturn was thought to be the only planet with a ring but recent discoveries have shown this to be wrong. Jupiter does indeed have a ring, thin, but a ring none the less.
Now all sorts of discoveries are coming our way regarding the planets moons, 63 of them, though 47 of them have been discovered since 1975 and of the 47 moons, they are less than 10 kilometers in diameter. Will we find life on one or more of the major moons? If we do, it may not be as we might think it to be. Let's keep watching the developments and open our eyes and minds to greater things! All images are from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (NASA). Check out Wikipedia and other sources for more information about this planet!!!
While Earth and the life on this planet certainly fascinate me, let's look at another interesting planet for a moment, Jupiter! Its long interested astronomers and since various spacecraft like the Pioneer and Voyager have brought us new and varied understanding of the planet and its moons, we are a long wayoff from understanding everything about this planet named by the Romans. A space flight to this planet doesn't come without its risks as you can see by the depiction of where asteroids are found enroute.
The Red Spot is familiar to most everyone in one way or another. Its a cyclonic disturbance that has been ongoing for centuries (atleast the 17th century). The images above and below, all from Nasa, give us an idea.
Then the Aurora borealis at Jupiter's North Pole is fascinating as well. I didn't know until I did this research that the Jovian planet even had one (Aurora). Then for a long time Saturn was thought to be the only planet with a ring but recent discoveries have shown this to be wrong. Jupiter does indeed have a ring, thin, but a ring none the less.
Now all sorts of discoveries are coming our way regarding the planets moons, 63 of them, though 47 of them have been discovered since 1975 and of the 47 moons, they are less than 10 kilometers in diameter. Will we find life on one or more of the major moons? If we do, it may not be as we might think it to be. Let's keep watching the developments and open our eyes and minds to greater things! All images are from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (NASA). Check out Wikipedia and other sources for more information about this planet!!!
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