As explained in Starstruck Tonight:
The brightest star in Sagittarius this summer (1996) is not a star, but the greatest of wandering planets, Jupiter. Look for Jupiter near the handle of the teapot.
The largest of planets, Jupiter has more than twice the mass of all other planets combined. Its gravitational attraction perturbs the motions of other planets. Like a small sun, Jupiter radiates more energy than it absorbs.
A person weighing 100 pounds on Earth would weigh 230 pounds on Jupiter.
Despite having a diameter about 12 times larger than the Earth, Jupiter's day is shorter: it rotates in less than ten hours. Since Jupiter is farther away from the Sun, a Jovian year is longer than ours: Jupiter takes about 12 Earth-years to revolve around the Sun.
For early modern Europeans, Jupiter epitomized the festive prosperity of a great King at peace. They believed that his prominence in the sky portended the best of times, and called him Fortuna Major. Dante made Jupiter's sphere the heavenly abode of rulers who are just and wise.
But not always has Jupiter seemed so serene and at peace. The great red spot is a giant storm more than twice the size of the Earth. This furious hurricane has persisted at least 300 years and shows no sign of subsiding yet.
In the summer of 1994, Comet Shoemaker-Levy-9 slammed into
Jupiter's southern hemisphere.
Many scientists believe that a cometary impact upon the Earth
triggered a mass extinction that killed the dinosaurs. These
scientists were able to observe a similar impact happening right
before their eyes on Jupiter. Yet the great and magnanimous Jupiter
retained his regal tranquility. It is now two years later, and the
impact has left little trace. The bands of Jupiter are not disturbed.
If seen with the Sun shining from behind, Jupiter appears enveloped by a very thin ring, made of microscopic dust the size of smoke particles.
In the spring of 1996 a space probe descended through Jupiter's atmosphere. It was named for Galileo, whose telescope first disclosed the four largest satellites of Jupiter. The Galileo probe has provided astronomers with a wealth of data. Some of the early results have been quite unexpected, which is exciting for Jovian specialists as they try to better understand this king of planets.