<BGSOUND SRC="http://www.stardoctor.org/Under_Pressure-Queen.mid" LOOP=INFINITE>

Jupiter

Jupiter, the collosal King of Planets, has a mass more than double that of all of the other planets combined.  In the night sky, it glows brighter than any star.  Jupiters surface is covered with clouds of methane and ammonia, mixed with hydrogen and helium.  The cloud bands of Jupiter are highlighted by the Great Red Spot, clearly seen on this image as an orange oval eye.  The Great Red Spot is a hurricaine four times the size of earth, which has persisted for over three hundred years.   The intensity of the Spot's color has varied over the years, but it can usually be seen with moderately large telescopes of 4" or larger aperture.  This image was taken with an 8" SCT telescope, with a 2.5x Barlow lens.  One thousand exposures through a webcam were digitally combined and then processed in Photoshop to create this picture.

Music:  Under Pressure, by Queen.

Why the music?  Jupiter has over 300 times the mass of the Earth, creating enough gravity to crush any spacecraft that appoaches its surface.   Certainly any close encounters with Jupiter would be performed "Under Pressure."