Some amazing facts about the planet jupiter

1)Jupiter is the vacuum cleaner of the Solar System. It sucks in comets, asteroids and meteorites which could be on a collision course for Earth. The comet, Shoemaker-Levy 9, was pulled apart by Jupiter's gravity and eventually collided with the planet in 1994.


2)Jupiter takes only 9 hours and 55 minutes to spin on its axis. This means a day on Jupiter is less than 10 hours long. Its fast rotation causes the planet to be squashed, being wider at the equator than from North to South.


3)Jupiter’s larger moon Ganymede is the largest moon in the solar system – It’s has a diameter of 5,268 km making it larger than the planet Mercury.



4)Jupiter is the third brightest object in the solar system – It is one of five planets that can be seen with the naked eye, the others are Mercury, Venus, Mars and Saturn.



5)The temperature in the cloud tops of Jupiter is about -230 degrees Fahrenheit.

6)Jupiter is one of the two most enjoyable and rewarding planets to view through a telescope. For most people, the first glimpse of Saturn is their most memorable, but for longevity of rewards, there is no equal to Jupiter. There is so much activity to see in Jupiter's atmosphere. Through a small telescope on a clear night you can see stripes on the celestial sphere. With more power, bands of color appear.