JUPITER, in Roman mythology, the supreme Roman deity, identified with the Greek Zeus. He was the son of Saturn and Rhea. Jupiter was the king and father of men, but his power extended over the. deities also; and everything was subservient to his will except the Fates.
From hirn mankind received their bless ings and miseries; they looked on him as acquainted with everything past, present, and future. The oak was sacred to him, because he first taught mankind to live on acorns. His most famous temple was at Elis, in Olympia, where, every 4th year, the Olympic games were celebrated in his honor; and his most famous oracle was at Dodona, in Epirus. The Romans considered Jupiter as the especial patron of their city. He is generally repre sented as sitting on a golden or ivory throne, holding in one hand thunderbolts ready to be hurled, and in the other a scepter of cypress, while the eagle stands with expanded wings at his feet. White, the color of the day, was sacred to him. For Jupiter Ammon, see AMMON.
In astronomy, the largest planet of the solar system. Its diameter at the equa tor is nearly 90,000 miles, and the dis tance from pole to pole is over 84,000 miles. Its bulk is 1,300 times that of the earth, but its density is only one-fourth that of the earth. The average dis tance of Jupiter from the sun is 483,000,000 miles; and a railway train traveling 50 miles an hour, would require nine centuries to go from the sun to Jupiter. The latter body revolves on its axis in about 9 hours and 55 minutes, which is the length of its day and night. Though traveling in its orbit round the sun at the rate of 28,743 miles an hour, it takes nearly 12 years to complete its revolution; this, therefore, is the length of its year. It is surrounded by four conspicuous belts of a brownish-gray color, two N., two S. of the equator, with feebler ones toward the poles. The equa torial region of the planet is brighter than the rest. Jupiter has nine satel
lites, four of which were discovered Jan. 6, 1610, by Galileo, and another Sept. 9, 1892, by Prof. Edward E. Barnard, then of the Lick Observatory. The four dis covered by Galileo are usually known by their numbers, which proceed in order of distance from the planet. If named they are called Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. The 9th satellite was dis covered by Nicholson in 1914.
JURA (zhii-ra1), a department in the E. of France, bordering on Switzerland; area 1,951 square miles; pop., about 250,000. A large part is covered by the JURA (q. v.) Mountains, and it is drained by the Ain and the Oignon. The pas tures are both extensive and rich, and the cattle reared on them, together with their dairy produce (including Gruyere cheese), form the chief source of wealth. Iron is xvorked, marble and alabaster abound, and there are salt springs in dif ferent quarters, from which salt is made. Capital, Lons-le-Saulnier.
JURA (jo'ra), a range of mountains of a peculiar limestone formation, oblitic in composition, and generally called Jur assic, which extends from the angle formed by the Rhone and the Ain, in a N. E. direction (with a gradually de clining elevation) for more than 450 miles, to the upper course of the Main. But it is usual to restrict the name to the ranges that lie along the frontier of Switzerland and France--mainly in the departments of Doubs, Jura, and Ain. The ranges are broken by numerous transverse gorges or "cluses." Lime stone caves are numerous, and they abound in magnificent stalactites and in the bones of extinct animals. Some rivers of considerable size sink into the g-round and reappear after some dis tance, as the Orbe, the Doubs, and the Creuse.