Jupiter

Easily the biggest planet in our solar system, and is about 10 times larger than the Earth, but a tenth the size of the Sun.

Appropriately, Jupiter is named after the central god in the Roman pantheon, Jupiter or Iuppiter in Latin. In addition to being the king of the Roman gods, Jupiter was also god of the sky and the god of lightning. Jupiter is basically the Roman copy of the Ancient Greek god Zeus.

The fifth planet from the Sun, Jupiter lies beyond Mars and the asteroid belt, and is the first of the gas giants in our solar system.

Just as the Sun has an entourage of planets orbiting it, Jupiter has its own merry band of followers, with at least 67 natural satellites orbiting it.

The four largest, Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, were discovered through telescope observations by Galileo Galilei.

Header image: The Greatest Jupiter Portrait by NASA.