Who Discovered Jupiter

Jupiter is the fifth and the largest planet in our solar system and is mostly composed of hydrogen and helium. Jupiter is ten times bigger than Earth, and one-tenth the size of the Sun. It has 63 moons, which makes it the planet with the most number of moons in our solar system. It is uncertain when this huge planet was formed, as there are several theories which try to explain the creation of planet Jupiter. However it was only in the late 17th century that this planet was discovered.

The Discovery of Jupiter

Due to its monstrous size, Jupiter is one of the five planets that can be seen with the naked eye making it difficult to ascertain the authenticity behind its discovery. Indeed being easily visible at night, many people must have observed this gigantic celestial body in the sky. The Romans even went on to name it after one of their Gods. While it's difficult to say who discovered Jupiter with pinpoint accuracy, the most credible theory suggests that it was Galileo who discovered this planet.

Although Jupiter was seen in the night sky without the use of telescopes or binoculars, Galileo Galilee was the first person to observe the planet more closely with his rudimentary telescope in 1610. As a result of this, many sources accredit Galileo as the discoverer of Jupiter. He also discovered the first four moons of Jupiter, which were named as J1, J2, J3, and J4. This was a historic discovery which altered the course of astronomical science to a great extent.

Galileo's observations of Jupiter also led to the end of the age-old myth that the Earth was the center of the solar systems, while all the other objects in the sky revolved around it. The model of solar system developed by Nicolaus Copernicus, which stressed on the fact that the Sun is the center of the solar system and other objects revolve around it got the much-needed support from Galileo's discovery of Jupiter's satellites, aka the Galilean moons.

As technological advancement began, the rudimentary telescopes used by astronomers began to become more sophisticated and hence, more precise. In due course of time, even more moons of Jupiter were discovered, thus, bringing the total number of moons to an astounding 63. In addition to this, astronomers also noticed a planetary ring system made up of dust around the planet, which was eventually named as the rings of Jupiter or the Jovian ring system.

In 1973, approximately 363 years after the discovery of Jupiter, the first spacecraft was sent to Jupiter by NASA. Today, we know a lot more about this planet as compared to what we knew in the 17th century when the planet, and its moons, were newly discovered. The moons of Jupiter which are located at an incredible distance from the planet and take a long time to orbit it. The 12th moon, for instance, located at a distance of 14, 880,000 miles from the planet, takes two years to orbit the planet. The gravitational field of Jupiter is so strong that the Shoemaker-Levy 9 Comet, which was anticipated to crash into Jupiter, got disintegrated into 20 fragments as soon as it entered it.

Though there is some doubt about the discoverer of Jupiter, information which stresses on its discovery by Galileo is available in plenty. The planets in our solar system have been in existence since millions of years. The fact that Jupiter has been cited in the accounts of various cultures for centuries, makes the details of the discovery of Jupiter even more difficult to un-earth.