METROPOLITAN SKIES By Dave Trapani
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Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun. It is the largest planet, over 11 times the size of Earth. It is so
large, you can fit 1,400 Earths inside Jupiter.
Jupiter is mostly a large ball of gas. It is made up of hydrogen, helium, methane, water and ammonia.
Jupiter's atmosphere looks like cloud belts and stripes. The clouds form belts because of Jupiter's
fast rotation. It spins over 2 times faster than Earth.
Speculation is that if Jupiter were larger, it might have been a sun. Jupiter has at least 52 moons
orbiting it, much like the planets revolving around the Sun. The four largest moons are Ganymede,
Callisto, Io and Europa. The moon Ganymede is even larger than the planet Mercury.
© 2008 David A. Trapani MetropolitanSkies.com All Rights Reserved
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