01/05/2022
History of discovery and research
Observations of the gas giant have been carried out since ancient times. The Sumerians called the planet "white star". Astronomers of ancient China described in detail the movement of the planet, and the Incas observed the satellites, calling it a "barn". The Romans named the planet after the supreme deity and the father of all ancient Roman gods.
I first saw the planet through the Galileo Galilei telescope. He also discovered the 4 largest moons of Jupiter. Observations of the planet and its moons also helped medieval astronomers calculate the approximate speed of light.
The gas giant was actively studied in the XX century after the appearance of interplanetary stations and space telescopes. It is noteworthy that all spacecraft launched to it belong to NASA. The first high-resolution images of the planet were taken by the Voyager series interplanetary vehicles. The first orbiting satellite, the Galileo spacecraft, helped to establish the composition of the Jovian atmosphere and the dynamics of processes inside it, as well as to obtain new information about the natural satellites of the gas giant. The Juno interplanetary station, launched in 2011, is studying the poles of Jupiter. In the near future, it is planned to launch American-European and Russian-European interplanetary missions to study the fifth planet from the Sun and its numerous satellites.