![]() Jovian is the adjectival form of Jupiter. The English equivalent, Jove, is only known to have come into use as a poetic name for the planet around the 14th century. It is associated with the etymology of Zeus ('sky father'). In Latin, Iovis is the genitive case of Iuppiter, i.e. The planetary symbol for Jupiter,, descends from a Greek zeta with a horizontal stroke, ⟨Ƶ⟩, as an abbreviation for Zeus. The International Astronomical Union formally adopted the name Jupiter for the planet in 1976, and has since named its newly discovered satellites for the god's lovers, favourites, and descendants. In both the ancient Greek and Roman civilizations, Jupiter was named after the chief god of the divine pantheon: Zeus to the Greeks and Jupiter to the Romans. Since 1973, Jupiter has been visited by nine robotic probes: seven flybys and two dedicated orbiters, with one more en route and one awaiting launch. ![]() Callisto is the second largest Io and Europa are approximately the size of Earth's Moon. Ganymede, the largest of the four, is larger than the planet Mercury. Jupiter forms a system of 95 known moons and probably many more, including the four large moons discovered by Galileo Galilei in 1610: Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. Jupiter is surrounded by a faint planetary ring system and has a powerful magnetosphere, the second largest contiguous structure in the Solar System (after the heliosphere). The most obvious result of this is the Great Red Spot, a giant storm which has been observed since 1831 and possibly earlier. The outer atmosphere is divided into a series of latitudinal bands, with turbulence and storms along their interacting boundaries. Because of its rapid rotation rate of 1 rotation per 10 hours, Jupiter's shape is an oblate spheroid: it has a slight but noticeable bulge around the equator. ![]() Its internal structure is believed to comprise an outer mantle of liquid metallic hydrogen, and a diffuse inner core of denser material. The ongoing contraction of Jupiter's interior generates more heat than the planet receives from the Sun. Jupiter is primarily composed of hydrogen (90% by volume), followed by helium, which makes up a quarter of its mass and a tenth of its volume. Jupiter was the first planet to form, and its inward migration during the primordial Solar System impacted much of the formation history of the other planets. It was named after Jupiter, the chief deity of ancient Roman religion. Jupiter is the third brightest natural object in the Earth's night sky after the Moon and Venus, and it has been observed since prehistoric times. Jupiter orbits the Sun at a distance of 5.20 AU (778.5 Gm) with an orbital period of 11.86 years. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, and slightly less than one one-thousandth the mass of the Sun. Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System.
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