The Outer Gas Giant Planet

By Anastasia Martinez & Shixi Jin #13

The 4 outer planet---Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune--- are much larger and more massive than Earth, and they do not have surface solid.

These planets are often called gas giants because of their large size.

The gas giants have atmosphere composed mainly of hydrogen and helium.

Gravity keeps the giant planets’ gases from escaping so they have thick atmosphere.

Jupiter is the largest and most massive planet. Jupiter’s Atmosphere: It has a thick

atmosphere that is made up of mainly hydrogen and helium. An interesting feature of Jupiter is it’s Great Red Spot, a storm that is larger than Earth.

Jupiter’s Structure: Astronomers believe that the planet may have a dense core rock and iron at its center. A thick mantle of liquid hydrogen and helium surrounds its core, because of the weight of Jupiter’s atmosphere. It is estimated to be about 30 million times greater than the pressure at Earth’s surface.

Jupiter

Size: diameter 143000km, radius 71490km

Period of rotation(Earth days) : 0.41

Average distance from sun(AU): 5.2

Period of revolution(Earth years): 12

Number of moons:63+

Average temperature: -234 degrees Fahrenheit (-145 Celsius)

Basic Data of Jupiter

Jupiter’s four largest moons are: Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto.

Jupiter contains the largest number of moons (63+)

Callisto’s surface is icy and covered with caters. Io’s surface is covered with large, active

volcanoes. Sulfur lava, gives Io its unusual color. Astronomers suspect that Europa’s icy crust

covers an ocean of liquid water underneath. Ganymede is the largest moon in the solar

system. Larger than Mercury or Pluto.

Jupiter’s Moon

Each of the gas giants is surrounded by a set of rings.A ring is a thin disk of small particles of ice and rock

The second large planet in the solar system is Saturn.

The Voyager shows Saturn has a thick atmosphere made up mainly of hydrogen and helium gas, and also contains clouds and storms.

Saturn is the only planet whose average density is less than water.

Saturn

Size: diameter 120500km, radius 60270km.

Period of rotation(Earth days) : 0.45

Average distance from sun(AU): 9.6

Period of revolution(Earth years): 29

Number of moons:47+

Average temperature: -288 degrees Fahrenheit(-178 Celsius)

Basic Data of Saturn

Saturn has the most spectacular rings of any planet.

The Voyager spacecraft discovered that each of Saturn’s obvious rings is divided into many thinner rings.

Saturn’s Rings

Saturn has 47+ moons, the largest moon is called Titan.

Titan, is larger than the planet Mercury, discovered in1665 but was known only as a point of light until the Voyager probes flew by.

The probes showed that Titan has an atmosphere so thick that little light can pass through.

Saturn’s Moons

Size of Saturn Compared to the Earth

Uranus is as twice as far from the sun as Saturn and is much colder.

Uranus is blue-green because of traces of methane in its atmosphere. It is surrounded by a group of thin, flat rings, and are darker than Saturn’s rings.

200 years later when William Herschel discovered Uranus, Voyager 2 arrived at Uranus and sent back, close up views of the planet. It showed a few clouds on Uranus ‘s surface calculating that Uranus rotates in about 17 hours.

Uranus

Size(km): diameter 51120km radius 25560km

Period of rotation(days):0.72

Average Distance from sun(AU):19.2

Period of revolution(Earth years):84

Number of moons:27+

Average temperature: -224degrees Celsius

Basic Data of Uranus

Uranus’s axis of rotation is tilted at an angle of 90 degrees from the vertical. Uranus’s rings and moons rotate around this tilted axis.

Uranus’s moon, photos from Voyager 2 show Uranus’s five largest moon have icy, cratered surfaces. The crater show that rocks from space have hit the moons. Uranus’s moon also have lava flows on their surfaces, suggesting that material has erupted from inside each moon.

Uranus

Neptune is a cold, blue planet. Its atmosphere contains visible clouds.

Neptune

Size(km): diameter 49530 radius 24760

Period of rotation(days): 0.67

Average Distance from sun(AU):30.0

Period of revolution(Earth years):164

Number of moons:13+

Average temperature: -200 degrees Celsius

Basic Data of Neptune

In 1989, Voyager 2 flew by Neptune and photographed a Great Dark Spot about the size of the Earth.

The Great Dark Spot was probably a giant storm, but storms don’t last long.

Images taken five years later show that the Great Dark Spot is gone.

Exploring Neptune

Neptune’s Moons

The largest moon is called Triton, which has a thin atmosphere.

The region near Triton’s south pole is covered by nitrogen ice.

Size of Neptune Compared to the Earth

Pluto has a solid surface and is much smaller and denser than the outer planets. Pluto is a mixture of rock and ice.

the largest moon of Pluto is the Charon, it is more than half of Pluto’s size.

Pluto’s orbit is very elliptical, bringing it closer to the sun than Neptune on part of its orbit.

Pluto

Size(km): diameter 2390 radius 1200

Period of rotation(days): 6.4

Average Distance from sun(AU):39.2

Period of revolution(Earth years):248

Number of moons:3

Average temperature:from -387 to -369 F (-233 to -223 C)

Basic Data of Pluto

Is round and orbits the sun. but unlike a planet , a dwarf planet has not cleared out the neighborhood around its orbit.

Astronomers classified Pluto and two other bodies as dwarf planets.

Dwarf Planets

1. is the following statement true or false: Jupiter’s four moons are Io, Callisto, Europa, Triton.

2. which planet has the most number of moons?

3.which planet is cold, blue, and contains visible clouds in its atmosphere.

QUIZ

4. which planet whose average density is less than that of water?

5. list the planets from largest to smallest

6. give the name of the spacecrafts that discovered the gas giants

7. how many gas giants are there in our solar system?

8. which planet has the most spectacular rings?

9. what is the Great Red Spot of Jupiter?

10. astronomers classified Pluto as ______.