Jupiter - Facts and Theories

Updated 7.3.2014 Jupiter is the largest planet of our solar system, and can easily be seen with bare eyes - along with a couple of its moons. It is classified as a gas giant along with Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. The average distance between Jupiter and the Sun is 778 million km.

THE RINGS OF JUPITER
Like Saturn, Jupiter too has rings although not as prominent. First observed by Voyager 1 in 1979.

The alleged Swiss contactee Billy Meier has claimed that he was told long ago by the extraterrestrials Plejarans  - some 20 years before the official discovery of the rings - of their existence and also how they mostly were formed; of volcanic material from the moon Io. Meier said already in October 1978 that Io is the most volcanically active body in the solar system.


THE MOONS OF JUPITER

Jupiter and the four Galilean moons

Jupiter has 67 confirmed moons. The largest of these are visible with the naked eye, and have thus been known since ancient times, but were officially discovered by Galileo Galilei in 1610: the four Galilean moons Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto (in the order of increasing distance from Jupiter).

Io
With over 400 active volcanoes, Io is the most geologically active object in the Solar System. There are also over a hundred mountains on Io, averaging 6 km in height. It takes only 42.5 hours for Io to complete one orbit around Jupiter.

Europa
Europa is the sixth-closest moon of the planet Jupiter, and orbits it in less than four days. It is the smallest of the four Galilean satellites - slightly smaller than our moon. Exploration of Europa began in the 1973 with the Jupiter flybys of Pioneer 10 (in 1973) and 11 (1974). Two Voyager probes traveled through the Jovian system in 1979 providing more detailed images of Europa's icy surface.

Europa has emerged as one of the top locations in our solar system in terms of potential habitability, and the possibility of hosting extraterrestrial life. Water eruptions on its surface are so far the best implications for there possibly being life. NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has observed water vapor venting off there.

Europa featured in the 2013 movie thriller Europa Report. The plot line: An international crew of astronauts undertakes a privately funded mission to search for life on Jupiter's fourth largest moon.

Ganymede
Ganymede is the largest moon in the Solar System, and the only moon known to possess a magnetosphere. Several probes flying by or orbiting Jupiter have explored Ganymede more closely, including four flybys in the 1970s, and multiple passes in the 1990s to 2000s. During the closest flyby Galileo passed just 264 km from the surface of Ganymede.

Callisto
Callisto is the third-largest moon in the Solar System, more or less the size of Mercury. The surface of Callisto is heavily cratered and extremely old. The likely presence of an ocean within Callisto leaves open the possibility that it could harbor life. However, conditions are thought to be less favorable than on nearby Europa. Because of its low radiation levels, Callisto has long been considered the most suitable place for a human base for future exploration of the Jovian system.

JUPITER AND UFOLOGY
Along with there possibly being some life on one of the moons of Jupiter, the planet itself is often mistaken for a UFO - as is Venus, or especially Venus. But could there be life over there?

There is a Russian video on YouTube stating that the Hubble satellite captured how a huge UFO - larger than the Earth's moon - crashed on the surface of Jupiter, and that the blast wave from the collision is clearly seen  - Youtube(2m12s) -


LINKS
- And Yet They Fly - IMDb:EuropaReport - Nature.com - Wiki:Europa  - Wiki:GalileoGalilei - Wiki:Jupiter - Wiki:MoonOfJupiter - Wiki:RingsOfJupiter -