Jupiter

The ancient Romans made up stories about gods and goddesses. These stories are called myths. According to one ancient Roman myth, Jupiter was the top god. He had two brothers and three sisters. The three boys got to divide up the world, with Jupiter getting the sky, Neptune getting the ocean and Pluto getting the underworld. Jupiter was powerful, and he really liked to throw his weight around. He hurled lightning bolts, created booming thunder and cloudbursts of rain, and generally made the other gods nervous.

Like the offset eyes on a Picasso portrait, the volcanoes on Jupiter's moon Io seem to be strangely shifted, according to a study by NASA and ESA scientists. Io's clustered volcanoes seem to be lying 30 to 60 degrees eastward of where they were expected, according to a paper published this year in Earth and Planetary Science Letters. The study could shed light on the internal dynamics of Jupiter's volcano-pocked moon. Io's internal heat comes from the kneading it gets from Jupiter and its fellow moons.

An international team of astrophysicists has discovered an enormous gaseous planet that is 13 times more massive than Jupiter, earning it the designation "super-Jupiter. " The finding, which is set to be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Astrophysical Journal Letters, marks the first new exoplanet system to be directly observed in over four years, according to the researchers. A pre-print of the study is available here . The planet is named "Kappa And b," because it is revolving around the parent star Kappa Andromedae.

An international team of astrophysicists has discovered an enormous gaseous planet that is 13 times more massive than Jupiter, earning it the designation "super-Jupiter. " The finding, which is set to be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Astrophysical Journal Letters, marks the first new exoplanet system to be directly observed in over four years, according to the researchers. A pre-print of the study is available here . The planet is named "Kappa And b," because it is revolving around the parent star Kappa Andromedae.

NASA's spacecraft Juno lifted off Friday in an incandescent arc over the Atlantic Ocean, the start of a five-year, 1.7-billion mile trip to Jupiter that scientists believe will unlock some of the secrets behind the origin of the solar system. NASA's spacecraft Juno lifted off Friday in an incandescent arc over the Atlantic Ocean, the start of a five-year, 1.7-billion mile trip to Jupiter that scientists believe will unlock some of the secrets behind the origin of the solar system.

Astronomers have discovered what they believe to be a rogue planet floating through space without a star. The super-Jupiter, called CFBDSIR2149, has a mass four to seven times that of our own gas giant, and is probably a scorching 800 or so degrees Fahrenheit. It appears to sit in a moving group of stars that, at a rough distance of 65 light-years, is just a cosmic stone's throw away from us. Scientists first discovered the apparent planet using the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii, while conducting a survey of brown dwarfs, "failed" stars that aren't massive enough to start the nuclear fusion in their cores that would allow them to shine.

Jack Grout, 78, Jack Nicklaus' first and only golf teacher, died of cancer at his home in Jupiter, Fla.

Venus and Jupiter are brilliant low in the southwest during evening twilight. Look for them about 5:30 p.m. Venus is 10 times brighter than Jupiter, and the two are separated by 13 degrees--a distance that is decreasing daily. Much fainter Mars is midway between then. Source: John Mosley, Griffith Observatory

Although not of the same cosmic significance as the Simpson trial, the comet that collided into Jupiter had to be the story of the week ("Jupiter Takes Huge Blow From Comet," July 19). Especially interesting--although, again, not quite as interesting as the O.J. Simpson trial--was the fact that one comet fragment created a plume with a width (9,600 miles) greater than the diameter of the Earth; I found this to be a precautionary item worth noting. Because, I feel, it would be particularly unpleasant to live through such a plume, I propose we not procrastinate, but immediately begin construction of three large baseball gloves to orbit above the Earth; attached to each glove would be a long rope for hauling, which would allow for easy fielding by a NASA Shuttle craft.

At least one in every four stars like the sun has planets about the size of Earth circling in very close orbits, according to the first direct measurement of the incidence of such planets, researchers said Thursday. That means that our galaxy alone, with its roughly 200 billion sun-like stars, has at least 46 billion Earth-size planets orbiting close to the stars, and perhaps billions more circling farther out in what scientists call the habitable zone, said astronomer Andrew Howard of UC Berkeley, a coauthor of a paper on the subject published in Friday's edition of the journal Science.

Astronomers have discovered what they believe to be a rogue planet floating through space without a star. The super-Jupiter, called CFBDSIR2149, has a mass four to seven times that of our own gas giant, and is probably a scorching 800 or so degrees Fahrenheit. It appears to sit in a moving group of stars that, at a rough distance of 65 light-years, is just a cosmic stone's throw away from us. Scientists first discovered the apparent planet using the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii, while conducting a survey of brown dwarfs, "failed" stars that aren't massive enough to start the nuclear fusion in their cores that would allow them to shine.

The sunshine is plentiful. The smiles are genuine. The beers are cold. Ah, spring training, where the losses don't count and hope runneth over. As the Angels enjoy their first six weeks of the Albert Pujols era, and as the Dodgers count down the final six weeks until owner Frank McCourt selects his successor, here are other places of interest around the Cactus and Grapefruit leagues: JUPITER, FLA. — The St. Louis Cardinals and Miami Marlins train here, but the team generating all the excitement is not the team that won the World Series last fall.

The ancient Romans made up stories about gods and goddesses. These stories are called myths. According to one ancient Roman myth, Jupiter was the top god. He had two brothers and three sisters. The three boys got to divide up the world, with Jupiter getting the sky, Neptune getting the ocean and Pluto getting the underworld. Jupiter was powerful, and he really liked to throw his weight around. He hurled lightning bolts, created booming thunder and cloudbursts of rain, and generally made the other gods nervous.

For Les Halos de Jupiter's Philippe Cambie, "Grenache is the king of all grapes and the natural leader of all Rhone varietals. " The southern Rhone rising-star enologist makes wines for a number of famed estates, but Les Halos de Jupiter is his own project. His Vacqueyras is a blend of 83% Grenache old vines and 17% Syrah from 35-year-old vines. With its intensely inky color, lush body and notes of wild herbs, deep dark fruit and spice, the 2009 shows why Vacqueyras can be such a beguiling wine — a close relative of Chateauneuf and Gigondas, which he also makes.

NASA's spacecraft Juno lifted off Friday in an incandescent arc over the Atlantic Ocean, the start of a five-year, 1.7-billion mile trip to Jupiter that scientists believe will unlock some of the secrets behind the origin of the solar system. NASA's spacecraft Juno lifted off Friday in an incandescent arc over the Atlantic Ocean, the start of a five-year, 1.7-billion mile trip to Jupiter that scientists believe will unlock some of the secrets behind the origin of the solar system.

Even for scientists versed in the grand scale of astronomy, it's never been easy to grasp the scope of Jupiter. After all, you could fit every piece of the solar system other than the sun inside Jupiter — all the other planets, moons and asteroids — with plenty of room to spare. Jupiter has cannibalized 20 moons over the years and still has at least 63, one bigger than Mercury. Jupiter's "spot" is actually a hurricane, which has lasted for hundreds of years and is more than twice the diameter of Earth.

Because I am fascinated by history, I found "Travels With Tom Jefferson" (June 22) interesting. I am, however, deeply disturbed by the journalist's use of language, which downplays the horrors associated with the cruelest of institutions. Whether intended or not, the article reinforces the fallacious impression that enslavement of Africans was acceptable in the context of the times. The author writes that Thomas Jefferson arrived in Tuckahoe in 1745 "held on a pillow by his beloved slave Jupiter."

The Galileo spacecraft made history Tuesday when it became the first spacecraft to encounter an asteroid, a cold chunk of rock and metal left over from the formation of the solar system. Galileo passed within 1,000 miles of Gaspra, snapping pictures as it sailed toward the asteroid at a relative velocity of 17,900 m.p.h., but it will be a year before scientists know whether their photos are any good.

The Milky Way galaxy may be filled with millions upon millions of Jupiter-sized planets that have escaped their solar systems and are wandering freely in space, researchers said Wednesday in a finding that seems certain to make astronomers rethink their ideas about planetary formation. Scientists had previously thought that about 20% of stars had massive planets attached to them, but the new results reported in the journal Nature suggest that there are at least twice as many planets as stars, and perhaps several times as many.

Astronomers have discovered an unusual planet that challenges several widely held assumptions about the way solar systems work. The planet, about 2,000 light-years away from us, is orbiting an unlikely star at an unlikely distance. The find, reported Thursday in the online edition of the journal Science, also indicates that planets may be more common outside our own Milky Way galaxy than had been thought. When astronomer Rainer Klement of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany, began observing the planet, his expectations were low. "To be honest, it started as kind of a fun project," he said.