Download Outer Planets

OUTER
PLANETS
LETS REVIEW
Name
the four inner planets?
What was there surface
consisting of?
What name were the four inner
planets known as? Hint starts
with a T
 Most
of what astronomers know about
outer planets have come from space
probes
 Compared to Earth some planets are huge
 Jupiter is 11 times larger
 If Earth were a Chihuahua Jupiter would
be a Great Dane
four
outer planets
 Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, &
Neptune
Do not have solid surface
Called Gas Giants
Stronger gravitational force
Partly solid core
JUPITER
Most
massive planet
Thick atmosphere of hydrogen
and helium
Colorful bands
of thick clouds
Great Red Spot:
ongoing storm
JUPITER’S MOONS
4
moons: Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto
 Are 4 largest
 Later have discovered many more
 Io
 Covered with volcanoes
 Looks like giant pizza
 Europa
 Icy crust
 Ganymede
 Largest, icy and partly covered with
craters
 Callisto
 Icy surface and every part covered with
craters
FOLDABLE
 5th
planet from the sun
 Largest planet
 Atmosphere is made mostly of
hydrogen, helium, methane, and
ammonia
 Great Red Spot is a ongoing storm
 Has a ring system
 Four large and 24 small moons
 Day=9hours56min
 Year=12 years
SATURN
2nd
largest
Slightly smaller than Jupiter
but with rings has greater
diameter
Thick atmosphere
Contains clouds and storms
Only planet less dense then
water
SATURN’S RINGS AND MOONS
 Rings
made of chunks of ice and rock
 HUNDREDS of rings
 Each travel in their own orbit around
Saturn
 Broad and think like a cd
 Recently rings have been discovered
around other 3 gas giants but not as
spectacular as Saturn's
 Many moons
 Largest called Titan: little light gets
through
FOLDABLE
6th planet from sun
 2nd largest planet
 Thick atmosphere
 At least thirty moons


Largest moon: Titan (larger than Mercury)
Less dense than water
 Has a ring system
 Day= 10 hours 39 min
 Year=29 years

URANUS
4
times the diameter of Earth but much
smaller than Jupiter and Saturn
 Twice as far from sun as Saturn so
much colder
 Looks bluish because of traces of
methane in atmosphere
 First new planet discovered since 1781
 Thought it might be a comet but when
studied had an orbit just beyond
Saturn
 Started major space exploration at the
time
 In
1986 Voyager 2 sent back our only close
up views
 Only a few clouds
 Rotates in 17 hours
 Axis tilted at 90 degrees
 Rotates top to bottom instead of side to
side
 Astronomer think a object hit it and
turned it on its side
 27 moons

5 largest icy, cratered surfaces, lava flows
(comes from inside)
FOLDABLE
7th planet from sun
 Third largest
 Has ring system
 Axis at 90 degrees (rotates top to bottom)
 27 moons
 Atmosphere of hydrogen, helium, methane, and
ammonia
 Methane caused bluish appearance
 Day=17 hours 14 min
 Year=84 years

NEPTUNE
30
times farther from Sun than
Earth
Contains visible clouds
1989 Voyager flew past and
discovered Great Dark
Spot(about size of Earth)
Probably a giant storm
Didn’t last long, 5 years later it
was gone
Other smaller spots seem to
come and go
13
moons
 Largest Triton
Near south pole covered
with cap of ice, dark material
erupts from underneath
Covered with ridges and
crators

FOLDABLE
 8th
planet from Sun
 Great Dark Spot: Storm as large as
Earth
 Has high altitude winds
 Atmosphere made of hydrogen,
helium, methane, and ammonia
 Methane causes blue color
 Has 13 moons (Triton=largest)
 Has a ring system
 Day=16 hours 6 min
 Year=165 years
PLUTO & CHARON
 Solid
surfaces
 Less than 2/3 size of Earth’s moon
 Moon Charon is more than 1/2 size of
Pluto considered double planet
 Revolve once every 248 years
 Astronomers don’t know much about
them
 Pluto discovered in 1930, Charon in
1978
 Is
it really a planet?
 Many astronomers say it is too
small
 Say it is just the largest of
thousands of objects revolving
around the sun beyond Neptune
 If astronomers had found these
other objects before Pluto might
not have called it a planet
FOLDABLE
9th planet from Sun
 Atmosphere is nitrogen, carbon monoxide, and
methane,
 Moon, Charon, half the size of Pluto
 Oval orbit sometimes puts it closer to the sun
than Neptune
 248 days to revole
 Solid Surface
