Jupiter: King of the Planets (eBook)

A concise history of Jupiter from the earliest pre-telescopic observations, to Galileo's discovery of four large moons, to the robotic probes of the Space Age. This 12,000 word ebook Short Read describes how our knowledge of Jupiter and its four planet-sized moons Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto has been transformed by the space probes that have visited this giant world. Jupiter's colorful surface bands were shown to be powerful jet streams extending deep into the atmosphere. Gravimetric mappings have revealed a 'fuzzy' core that could be evidence of a cataclysmic impact two-thirds the size of Uranus. The large moons were revealed as dynamic, geologically active worlds. Some of them could possibly host life in subsurface oceans that hold more water than all of Earth's oceans put together.

With further space probes on their way to Jupiter, the Solar System's largest planet is likely to keep astronomers and planetary scientists occupied for decades to come.