Download The Outer Planets

The Outer Planets
Chapter 23, Section 3
Jupiter: Giant Among Planets
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Jupiter has a mass that is 2 ½ times greater than the mass
of all other planets and moons combined
If Jupiter had been about 10 times larger, it would have
become a star
One rotation around its axis take 10 Earth hours
The most striking feature of Jupiter is its Great Red Spot, it is
a cyclonic storm in the upper atmosphere
Jupiter’s hydrogen-helium atmosphere also contains small
amounts of methane, ammonia, water, and sulfur
compounds
Due to immense pressures within the atmosphere, Jupiter is
thought to be a gigantic ocean of liquid hydrogen
Jupiter also has a faint system of rings surrounding the
planet, not discovered until Voyager 1 flew past in 1979
Jupiter’s Atmosphere
Jupiter’s Moons
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Jupiter’s satellite system, consisting of 28
moons discovered so far, looks like a mini solar
system
The four largest moons (Io, Europa, Ganymede,
and Callisto) were discovered by Galileo
Io is one of three known volcanically active
bodies in our solar system (Neptune’s moon
Triton is another)
The largest of the moons is Ganymede
Europa is covered with ice and shows many
linear features
Callisto is heavily cratered and greatly
Jupiter and its Moons
Saturn: The Elegant Planet
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The most prominent feature of Saturn is its system of
rings
Saturn’s atmosphere is very active, with wind speeds
up to 1500 kilometers per hour
Large “cyclonic” storms occur in the atmosphere
The main rings of Saturn (A and B) are very dense
and contain many “moonlets” that often collide with
each other
Saturn’s faintest ring (E) is composed of very fine
particles that are spread apart
Saturn’s satellite system consists of 31 moons (Titan
is the largest and has an atmosphere that obscures its
surface from view)
Saturn’s moon, Enceladus, was found to emit liquid
geysers
Saturn and its
Moons
Saturn’s Rings
Uranus: The Sideways Planet
Instead of being generally perpendicular to
the plane of its orbit, Uranus’s axis of
rotation lies nearly parallel with the plane
of its orbit
 Uranus has a set of at least nine distinct
rings
 Uranus has five large moons, and many
smaller ones, that are very varied in their
geology: deep canyons, linear scars,
large-smooth areas on otherwise cratered
surfaces
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Uranus
Neptune: The Windy Planet
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Winds exceeding 1000 kilometers per hour
encircle Neptune, making it one of the windiest
places in the solar system
It has an Earth-size storm called the Great Dark
Spot
There are white, cirrus-like clouds that occupy a
layer about 50 kilometers above the main cloud
deck, thought to be frozen methane
Triton, Neptune’s largest moon, exhibits
retrograde motion, indicating that it formed
separately from Neptune and was gravitationally
captured
Neptune
Pluto: Planet X
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Pluto lies on the fringe of the solar system, almost 40
times farther from the sun than Earth
Because of its great distance, and slow orbital
period, it takes Pluto 248 Earth-years to orbit the sun
Pluto’s orbit is highly eccentric, causing it to
occasionally travel inside the orbit of Neptune, where
it resided from 1979 through February 1999
In 1978, the moon Charon was found to be orbiting
Pluto
The average temperature on Pluto is estimated at 210ºC
In 2006, Pluto’s status as a planet was revoked, it is
now considered a dwarf planet along with many
other Kuiper belt objects
Assignment
Read Chapter 23, Section 3 (pg. 654-659)
 Do Section 23.3 Assessment #1-7 (pg. 659)
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