Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet in the Solar Sys

tem. It is a giant planet with a mass one-thousandth of that of the Sun, but is
two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined.
Jupiter is a gas giant, along with Saturn (Uranus and Neptune are ice giants).
Jupiter was known to astronomers of ancient times.[11] The Romans named it after
their god Jupiter.[12] When viewed from Earth, Jupiter can reach an apparent ma
gnitude of -2.94, bright enough to cast shadows,[13] and making it on average th
e third-brightest object in the night sky after the Moon and Venus. (Mars can br
iefly match Jupiter's brightness at certain points in its orbit.)
Jupiter is primarily composed of hydrogen with a quarter of its mass being heliu
m, although helium only comprises about a tenth of the number of molecules. It m
ay also have a rocky core of heavier elements,[14] but like the other giant plan
ets, Jupiter lacks a well-defined solid surface. Because of its rapid rotation,
the planet's shape is that of an oblate spheroid (it has a slight but noticeable
bulge around the equator). The outer atmosphere is visibly segregated into seve
ral bands at different latitudes, resulting in turbulence and storms along their
interacting boundaries. A prominent result is the Great Red Spot, a giant storm
that is known to have existed since at least the 17th century when it was first
seen by telescope. Surrounding Jupiter is a faint planetary ring system and a p
owerful magnetosphere. Jupiter has at least 67 moons, including the four large G
alilean moons discovered by Galileo Galilei in 1610. Ganymede, the largest of th
ese, has a diameter greater than that of the planet Mercury.
Jupiter has been explored on several occasions by robotic spacecraft, most notab
ly during the early Pioneer and Voyager fly-by missions and later by the Galileo
orbiter. The most recent probe to visit Jupiter was the Pluto-bound New Horizon
s spacecraft in late February 2007. The probe used the gravity from Jupiter to i
ncrease its speed. Future targets for exploration in the Jovian system include t
he possible ice-covered liquid ocean on the moon Europa.A set of new super-Earth
s may have originally populated the inner Solar System. Earth and its neighbor p
lanets may have formed from fragments of planets after collisions with Jupiter d
estroyed those super-Earths near the Sun. As Jupiter came toward the inner Solar
System, in what theorists call the Grand Tack Hypothesis, gravitational tugs an
d pulls occured causing a series of collisions between the super-Earths as their
orbits began to overlap.[15]
Astronomers have discovered nearly 500 planetary systems each with multiple plan
ets, and typically these systems include a few planets with masses several times
greater than Earth's (super-Earths), orbiting closer to their star than Mercury
is to the Sun, and Jupiter-like gas giants are also often found close to their
star.
It appears that Jupiter is now in its orbit in the outer Solar System because Sa
turn pulled Jupiter out during its migration. Jupiter moving out of the inner So
lar System would have allowed the formation of inner planets, including Earth.[1
6]