dipper@utastro.UUCP (Debbie Byrd) (10/28/84)
The king of planets is ending its reign over the evening sky. We'll talk more about Jupiter -- in a minute. October 28 The King of Planets That bright object next to the moon Sunday night is the planet Jupiter -- the largest planet in the solar system. Jupiter was named for the mythological Roman king of the gods -- long before it was known that this planet really is the largest in the solar system. The poet Walt Whitman called Jupiter the Lord-Star -- and during the past summer months Jupiter has dominated the evening sky. But now the evening reign of Jupiter is nearing its end -- as the planet heads westward on the dome of the sky and into the sun's glare. Jupiter is the fifth planet out from the sun. It takes about twelve times as long as Earth to orbit the sun -- twelve years, instead of one year. As Earth moves ahead of its big brother world in the race of the planets around the sun, we see Jupiter travel down the western half of the dome of the sky. So, Sunday evening, Jupiter is near the waxing crescent moon. Mars is nearby, too -- a reddish object slightly higher in the west than Jupiter and the moon. The moon will continue moving in its never-ending orbit around Earth -- to be closer to Mars Monday evening. Since Mars travels more swiftly in orbit than Jupiter, it's due to hang closer to Earth, fading slowly in our sky, for some months to come. Meanwhile, Jupiter should be gone entirely from the evening sky by around the end of the year -- only to emerge a few weeks later as a bright beacon in the sky before dawn. Script by Diana Hadley and Deborah Byrd. (c) Copyright 1983, 1984 McDonald Observatory, University of Texas at Austin