Download 14.4 The Solar System Outer Planets

14.4 The Solar System
Outer Planets (page 562)
Planets
• There are 8 planets:
Gas Giants
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Mercury
Venus
Terrestrial
Planets
Earth
Mars
Jupiter
Saturn
Uranus (YOOR uh nus)
Neptune
Pluto --- dwarf
**You are responsible for knowing the planets in order!!!!
A good way to remember the order is through a pneumonic. (My Very
Energetic Mom Just Sent Us Nine Pizzas)
The Gas Giants
• The last four outer planets are much larger
and more massive than Earth, and they do
not have solid surfaces.
• For these reasons they are called the “Gas
Giants”
• They have many moons.
• They are also surrounded by a set of rings.
Jupiter
• The largest planet: 318x Earth
• Jupiter is the fourth brightest
object in the sky (after the
Sun, Moon and Venus)
• Galileo discovered four of
Jupiter’s moons in 1610
• Jupiter has 63+ moons
(Ganymede is the largest with
a mass 2x that of Earth’s
moon)
Jupiter
Thick atmosphere of hydrogen
and helium
• The atmosphere has many
colorful bands of swirling
clouds
• The Great Red Spot: a giant
area of swirling clouds many
times bigger than Earth (a
storm similar to a hurricane)
• Jupiter is a gas planet and
does not have a solid surface
(though it most likely has a
solid core 10-15x the mass of
Earth)
Jupiter
• Jupiter radiates more
energy into space than it
receives from the Sun!!!!!
• It’s interior is hot, due to
gravitational compression.
• It has a huge magnetic
field.
• It has rings, but much
fainter and smaller than
Saturn’s.
Saturn
• Saturn is the 2nd largest
planet
• It is easily visible in the
night sky
• It is the least dense of all
the planets. It is less
dense than water.
• Its atmosphere is about
75% hydrogen; 25%
helium
• It probably has a rocky
core
Saturn
• There are 100s of rings
that are made up of ice
and rock, each traveling
in its own orbit
• The rings are very thin
(less than 1 km)
• Saturn has 30 moons:
Titan (the largest), Tethys,
Iapetus, Dione, and
Rhea.
Uranus
• 4x the diameter of Earth
• It is a bluish color due to
traces of methane (CH4)
in its atmosphere.
• Twice as far away from
the Sun as Saturn (next
to it).
• Discovered in 1781by
William Herschel
• Uranus’s axis of rotation
is tilted at an angle of
about 90 degrees from
vertical
Uranus
• Uranus is the coldest of
all the planets
• It is also the secondleast dense planet after
Saturn
• Its atmosphere is about
83% hydrogen, 15%
helium, 2% methane
• Like other gas planets,
Uranus has rings
• Uranus has 27 moons
(21 named, 6 unnamed)
Neptune
• Neptune is the fourth
largest planet
• It is often called the
“cold, blue planet”
• It also has rings.
• It is possibly shrinking
and growing warmer
• Neptune possibly has a
rocky core
Neptune
• Neptune's most prominent
feature was the Great Dark
Spot (left) in the southern
hemisphere. It was about
half the size as Jupiter's
Great Red Spot (about the
same diameter as Earth).
• Neptune has 13 known
moons.
• Neptune was discovered in
1846 due to a mathematical
prediction involving Uranus
Pluto
• Only has 1 moon:
Charon
• Pluto has a solid
surface (probably
rock and ice) is less
than 2/3 the size of
Earth’s moon.
• Pluto is not
considered a planet
– Orbit very elliptical
– Not like gas giants
– Just rock and ice
Assignment
• Do the review questions for 14.4 on page
569