The Outer Planets Section 14.4

Standard e. Students know the appearance, general composition, relative position and size, an motion of objects in the solar system, including planets, planetary satellites, comets, and asteroids.

Introduction 0 The most obvious difference between Jupiter and other terrestrial planets: 0 IT’S SO BIG! 0 Like other giant planets, Jupiter has no real surface, just a core buried deep within the planet.

Gas Giants and Pluto 0 The four outer planets – Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune – are much larger and more massive than Earth, and they do not have solid surfaces 0 Gas Giants: because these four Planets are so large and are composed of gas, they are called the gas giants.

Gas Giants and Pluto 0 Like the sun, the gas giants have atmosphere composed mainly of hydrogen and helium 0 Hydrogen and Helium are actually in a liquid state. 0 Ring: A thick disk of small particles of ice and rock

Jupiter 0 Jupiter is the largest and most massive planet. 0 Jupiter’s Atmosphere 0 Thick and made mostly of hydrogen and helium. 0 Great Red Spot: storm larger than Earth 0 There is no land to weaken the storm, so it goes on forever

Jupiter 0 Jupiter’s Structure 0 Dense core of rock and iron at its center 0 Pressure at Jupiter’s core is estimated to be about 30 million times greater than the pressure at Earth’s surface 0 Jupiter’s Moons 0 Galileo discovered Jupiter’s 4 largest moons 0 Io, Europa, Ganymede, Castillo

Saturn 0 Second largest in the solar system 0 Thick atmosphere of hydrogen and helium 0 Density is less than water 0 Saturn’s Rings 0 Saturn has the most spectacular rings of any planet. Saturn’s rings are broad and thin, like a CD or DVD.

Saturn 0 Saturn’s Moons 0 Titan is larger than the planet Mercury 0 Titan has an atmosphere so thick that little light can pass through it.

Uranus 0 4x the diameter of Earth 0 Uranus looks blue-green because of traces of methane in the atmosphere 0 It has a group of thin flat rings 0 Discovery of Uranus 0 Discovered in They first thought it was a comet, and later confirmed it was a planet

Uranus 0 Exploring Uranus 0 Voyager 2 arrived at Uranus and sent back close-ups of the planet. 0 Uranus’s axis of rotation is tilted at an angle of about 90 degrees from the vertical. It is rotating top to bottom instead of side to side, like other planets 0 Uranus’s Moons 0 Has at least 27 moons

Neptune 0 Neptune is a cold, blue planet, Its atmosphere contains visible clouds. 0 Discovery of Neptune 0 Was a result of <3 MATH!!! <3 0 They couldn’t see it, but used math and physics to figure out that there was another object out there. Later, someone actually found it!

Neptune 0 Exploring Neptune 0 Voyager 2 in Like the red spot on Jupiter, there was a dark great spot on Neptune, but it went away. It was likely a storm. 0 Neptune’s Moons 0 There are at least 13 moons around Neptune. 0 Voyager Images show that the region near Triton’s South pole is covered by nitrogen ice.

Pluto 0 Pluto has a solid surface and is much smaller and denser than outer planets. Pluto is smaller than Earth’s moon. 0 Pluto has 3 known moons. 0 Pluto’s Orbit 0 It’s so far from the sun that it revolves around the sun only once every 248 Earth years

Pluto 0 What is a dwarf planet anyway? 0 Pluto used to be considered a planet, not a dwarf planet. Why the demotion? 0 There are many similar “planets” to these near Pluto also revolving the sun.