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Galileo finds Jupiter's 4 moons
This demonstrated that Earth was not the center of the universe. -
Giovanni Cassini used his telescope to discover spots and bands across the surface of Jupiter
He was able to estimate the planet's rotational period. He is thought to be the first to observe the Great Red Spot. -
E.E. Barnard observed a 5th satellite of Jupiter
This was the last planetary moon to be discovered directly by visual observation. -
Jupiter's moon Amalthea is discovered
Amalthea is the largest of the inner stellites of Jupiter, and is thought to contain water, ice, and unknown amounts of other materials. -
Bernard Burke and Kenneth Franklin detected bursts of radio signals coming from Jupiter
The period of these bursts matched the rotation of the planet, and they were also able to use this information to refine the rotation rate. -
Jupiter was first visited by Pioneer 10
Pioneer 10 served as a scout for the Voyager spacecrafts, showing that the radiation was tolerable and mapping out the main characteristics of the planet. -
US Voyager I obtained the first image of Jupiter's rings
A flattening main ring and an inner cloudlike ring are made up of small, dark parts. A third ring is actually 3 rings of microscopic debris from 3 small moons. -
Voyager II makes it's closest approach to Jupiter
Durning this time, the probe spotted volcanoes on Jupiter's moon Io. -
The Ulysses solar probe flies past Jupiter's north pole
Jupiter's gravity bent the spacecraft's flightpath down and away from the eliptical plane, placing it into a final orbit around the Sun's north and south poles. -
Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 collides with Jupiter
The effects were clearly visible even with amature telescopes. The debris from the collision was visible for nearly a year after. -
NASA's Galileo spacecraft dropped a probe into Jupiter's atmosphere
The Galileo spacecraft collected the first direct measurements of the atmospere. -
Images of Jupiter's moon, Europa, surface
The pictures confirm the 1996 revealed surface of massive icebergs floating in an ocean. -
Cassini probe, en route to Saturn, flew by Jupiter
Cassini provided some of the highest-resolution images ever made of the planet. -
New Horizons flies by Jupiter
The encounter was used as a general test of New Horizons' scientific abilities, returning data about Jupiter's atmosphere, moons, and magnetosphere. -
Spacecraft Juno will reach Jupiter
Juno will provide new information to help us understand how, when, and where Jupiter formed.
