Jupiter is the King of the Planets, well named
because it is the largest planet in the entire solar system.
It is large enough to hold 300 Earths, and yet it turns so
fast, a day on Jupiter is only 10 HOURS long!!
Jupiter orbits the Sun in 12 years, spending about 1 year passing through each of the 12 Zodiac belt constellations through which the Sun and the planets also travel.
MIDI - Jupiter, Bringer of Jollity - Holst
It is one of the Gas Giants, having no real hard surface like the Earth, Mars, Venus and Mercury. It is also believed to be a dormant sun, since if it were only 40% more massive, it would be another Sun in our solar system. It is also the first planet (apart from the Earth) in our journey outward from the Sun, which has moons...lots of them...16 in all, which orbit the planet.
Four of these moons are very well known and may be the subjects of future exploration, terraformation, and study. They are Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto (in order outwardly from Jupiter). Metaphysically, Jupiter represents more of a
collective part of our consciousness than an individual part of
our personalities. It represents our collective superconscious,
or the library of knowledge mankind has developed as he has
evolved from his beginnings. It is the part of us which bestows
mercy, compassion and benevolence to others, the kind, goodly
king.
Jupiter has an enormous gravitational pull due to it's collosal size. Recently, we on Earth were witness to the awesome power of this planet as it pulled apart and "digested" the pieces of Shoemaker-Levy 9, the comet pulled into Jupiter's field and eventually crashing into the planet itself. This event humbly reminded us that, were Jupiter not there, some of these loose comets and asteroids would surely collide with the Earth more frequently than they do now. If this were so, species like man and civilization in general could not really survive very long (relatively speaking, in cosmic time).
Many today believe that a very large meteor crashed into the Earth by the Yucatan peninsula and Gulf of Mexico, causing the eventual extinction of the dinosaurs. Many more also believe that it is not a question of whether or not this could happen again, but when. Of the hundreds of thousands of asteroids on Earth-intercepting orbits, we only know of about 5-10% at the present time.
Comments? Suggestions? Strange ideas? Ancient secrets?
