Download The Terrestrial Planets

The Jovian Planets
Jupiter
• Largest planet in our solar system
• Jupiter is a ball of dense hydrogen, helium,
water, nitrogen and other gases over a tiny rocky
core
• Atmosphere is mainly hydrogen, helium and
methane
• Great Red Spot is gigantic hurricane-like storm
• Has rings, but are made up of small, dark
particles, not ice like Saturn’s
Jupiter
You can see the red
spot and four of
Jupiter’s more than
60 moons.
Saturn
• At least 31 moons
• Ring system made of thousands of water
ice particles
• Atmosphere is hydrogen, helium, and
methane
Saturn
Voyager II took
this picture.
Uranus
• Icy and has faint rings
• Bluish color because methane gas in the
atmosphere absorbs red light and reflects
blue light
• Rotates on its side
• 16 moons
Uranus
Voyager II also took
this picture.
Neptune
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•
•
•
Blue because of methane
Faint rings
Storms like the Great Red Spot on Jupiter
Neptune’s moon, Titan, is the largest
moon to orbit backwards around a planet
• 13 moons
Neptune
The “Great Dark
Spot” is visible. It
is no longer there.
Pluto
•
•
•
•
•
Dwarf planet
Takes sunlight 5 ½ hours to reach Pluto
Orbit is 248 Earth years
In the Kuiper Belt
Sometimes, its orbit swings inside
Neptune’s orbit
• 2/3 the size of our moon
• 3 moons
Pluto
Pluto and
Charon: The
best picture
as of yet
taken by the
Hubble
Space
Telescope