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The brightest planets in the sky have been named from ancient times. The scientific names are taken from the names given by the Romans: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Our own planet is usually named in English as Earth, or the equivalent in the language being spoken (for instance, two astronomers speaking French would call it la ...
In both the ancient Greek and Roman civilizations, Jupiter was named after the chief god of the divine pantheon: Zeus to the Greeks and Jupiter to the Romans. [19] The International Astronomical Union formally adopted the name Jupiter for the planet in 1976 and has since named its newly discovered satellites for the god's lovers, favourites, and descendants. [20]
The adjectival forms of the names of astronomical bodies are not always easily predictable. Attested adjectival forms of the larger bodies are listed below, along with the two small Martian moons; in some cases they are accompanied by their demonymic equivalents, which denote hypothetical inhabitants of these bodies.
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant , with an average radius of about nine times that of Earth . [ 27 ] [ 28 ] It has an eighth the average density of Earth, but is over 95 times more massive.
Jupiter on Saturday will shine at its brightest for the year, as Earth’s orbit swings our planet between Jupiter and the sun. Weather permitting, the gas giant will not only be brighter than ...
Just one day before opposition, Jupiter will be around 367 million miles away from the Earth, the closest the two planets have been in 59 years, according to NASA. The last time that Jupiter was ...
Some of these bodies have exactly the same name, referring to the same mythological character. The earliest such conflicts possibly arose through not considering certain mythological names as "official"; for instance, the names Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto for the Galilean satellites of Jupiter were not used in astronomical literature of a certain era, their place being taken by Jupiter I ...
The holiday season holds a special gift, as skygazers on Earth will be treated to a great conjunction of the planets Jupiter and Saturn. Using binoculars or a backyard telescope, it will not only ...