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Ch. 3 Sec. 4 Notes The Outer Planets *Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are the 4 outer planets Gas Giants and Pluto *The 4 outer planets are much bigger than Earth and do not have solid surfaces -Referred to as gas giants -Pluto is a "gas dwarf" *The gas giants are composed of mainly hydrogen and helium *Due to their large size, their gravity is much stronger and can hold in all the gas -Provides a thick atmosphere *Even though they are called gas giants, all the gas is mainly in liquid form because of the enormous pressure inside the planets *The outer layer of the gas giants is extremely cold because of their great distance from the sun -Temperatures increase as you go inside the planet *All the gas giants have many moons *Each gas giant is surrounded by a set of rings -Thin disk of small particles of ice and rock Jupiter *Largest and most massive planet *Mass is still 2.5 times greater than all the other planets combined *1,300 Earth's can fit inside Jupiter Jupiter's Atmosphere *Thick atmosphere of hydrogen and helium *Has a Great Red Spot, a storm that is larger than Earth -Similar to a hurricane that hasn't stopped since the 1600s Jupiter's Structure *Has dense core of rock and iron at the center (only place that is solid) *A thick, liquid mantle of hydrogen and helium *The air pressure of Jupiter's core is 30 million times greater than at Earth's core Jupiter's Moons *Galileo discovered the 4 largest moons of Jupiter -Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto -Larger than Earth's moon *Scientists have discovered dozens of other smaller moons orbiting Jupiter within the last couple of decades Saturn *Second largest planet in solar system *Voyager is the probe that showed Saturn also has a thick atmosphere made up of hydrogen and helium *Saturn is the only planet whose average density is less than that of water Saturn's Rings *Made of chunks of ice and rock, traveling in its own orbit around Saturn *Saturn's rings are the most spectacular rings of any planet because it looks like a giant CD circling the planet Saturn's Moons *Saturn's largest moon, Titan, is larger than the planet Mercury *Titan was discovered in 1665 -Atmosphere is so thick, that little light can go through it *There are 4 other moons that orbit Saturn and are all over 1,000 km in diameter Uranus *Looks blue-green because of traces of methane in the atmosphere Discovery of Uranus *In 1781, Uranus became the first new planet discovered since ancient times *An English astronomer named William Herschel discovered a fuzzy spot in the sky and started the era of active solar system study Exploring Uranus *Voyager 2 arrived at Uranus in the 1980s *Images showed a few clouds, but scientists discovered that Uranus rotates in 17 hours *Uranus's axis of rotation is tilted 90 degrees from the vertical *Like Venus, scientists believe a big object hit and knocked it on its side Uranus's Moon *Uranus's 5 largest moons have icy, cratered surfaces *Have evidence of lava that erupted out from within each moon *Uranus has a total of 27 moons Neptune *Cold, blue planet *Atmosphere contains visible clouds *Scientists think Neptune is shrinking, causing its interior to heat up *As the heat rises, it produces clouds and storms Discovery of Neptune *Neptune was discovered as a result of a mathematical prediction *Astronomer's hypothesized that the gravity of an unseen planet was affecting Uranus's orbit *By 1846, the unseen planet's orbit was calculated * A few years later, an unknown object was spotted in the sky = Neptune Neptune's Moons *At least 13 moons orbiting Neptune *The largest moon is Triton, which has a thin atmosphere -South pole is covered in nitrogen ice Pluto *Pluto DOES have a solid surface and is much smaller and denser than the other planets -Smaller than Earth's moon *Pluto has 3 known moons Pluto's Orbit *Pluto is so far away that its 1-year is equivalent to 248 Earth years *Its orbit is extremely elliptical Dwarf Planets *Scientists discovered two other bodies of mass that are very similar to Pluto in the last couple of years *They have decided to take Pluto out as the 9th planet of our solar system and make a new class of planets -Called "dwarf planets" *Dwarf planets are round and orbit the sun, but run into other objects when it orbits the sun