Download or read book JUPITER 2E written by BEEBE R and published by Smithsonian. This book was released on 1994-09-17 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book, Reta Beebe provides a full introduction to the jovian system, describing the planet's atmosphere, winds, and the swirling clouds, such as the Great Red Spot, that they create. She discusses models of the interior of the planet, the differences between its satellites (or moons), its equatorial rings of debris, and its magnetosphere: the interactive region around the planet created by its magnetic field. Considered a substellar companion to the sun - because it radiates more heat than it receives from the sun and has a similar chemical composition - Jupiter is thought to have no solid surface below the visible clouds. Among astronomers, it is seen as a laboratory in which to test theories of planet and star formation. Reviewing the history of discoveries about Jupiter, Beebe shows how our early earthbound knowledge was greatly expanded by the data from the Pioneer and Voyager spacecraft that journeyed past the planet in the 1970s. She also speculates - drawing on the sophisticated models and theorems that underlie all planetary science - on the results of the Galileo Mission (launched in 1989, it is expected to fly by Jupiter in 1995) and discusses the possibly more dramatic July 1994 collision of the Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, hurtling toward Jupiter at 130,000 miles an hour with a mass of nearly six trillion tons.