Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Chapter 1 Introduction
- Chapter 2 Planetary geomorphology methods
- Chapter 3 Planetary morphologic processes
- Chapter 4 Earth’s Moon
- Chapter 5 Mercury
- Chapter 6 Venus
- Chapter 7 Mars
- Chapter 8 The Jupiter system
- Chapter 9 The Saturn system
- Chapter 10 The Uranus and Neptune systems
- Chapter 11 Planetary geoscience future
- Appendices
- References
- Further Reading
- Index
Chapter 8 - The Jupiter system
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Chapter 1 Introduction
- Chapter 2 Planetary geomorphology methods
- Chapter 3 Planetary morphologic processes
- Chapter 4 Earth’s Moon
- Chapter 5 Mercury
- Chapter 6 Venus
- Chapter 7 Mars
- Chapter 8 The Jupiter system
- Chapter 9 The Saturn system
- Chapter 10 The Uranus and Neptune systems
- Chapter 11 Planetary geoscience future
- Appendices
- References
- Further Reading
- Index
Summary
Introduction
Jupiter, one of the brightest objects in the sky, was named after the mightiest of the Roman gods because of its dominance. More massive than the other planets combined, Jupiter with its rings and satellites has been likened to a “miniature Solar System.” More than 400 years of telescopic observations and, more importantly, flights of the Pioneer, Voyager, Galileo, Cassini, and New Horizons spacecraft have yielded images and other data for the Jovian system that are among the most spectacular in the Solar System.
Exploration
Scientific exploration of the Jupiter system was begun in 1610 by Galileo Galilei. He had been waiting many days for the night-time skies to clear so that he could try out a new, technically advanced instrument. But it was January in the town of Padua in northern Italy where he worked and winter skies were frequently cloudy. Then, on January 7, a break in the weather brought a sparkling clear night, and Galileo was able to use the new invention to discover a fascinating set of worlds. These discoveries not only brought Galileo much acclaim but also led to a series of military contracts to put the invention to other uses. The invention was the telescope, and, although Galileo did not invent it, he was probably the first to use the telescope to study the heavens, leading to his discovery of the four large moons of Jupiter.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Introduction to Planetary Geomorphology , pp. 147 - 176Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2013