Download Distance from Sun - Barnhill-Memorial

The Planets
Jupiter
and
Saturn
Jupiter

Position: Fifth planet from the sun.

Diameter: 142 800 km

Distance from Sun: 778 330 000 km
Jupiter
Description: Composed mostly of gas,
has prominent bands around its latitude,
and a great red spot. Jupiter doesn’t really
have a “surface.” It is covered in clouds,
and those clouds get more and more
dense, as they get closer to the planet’s
center, until they turn into liquid.
 Atmosphere: 82 % hydrogen, 18 %
helium, with traces of other elements.

Jupiter
Temperature range: The cloud tops
average -153ºC and the temperature rises
closer to the planet’s center.
 Day length: One day on Jupiter is 9.8
Earth hours long.
 Year length: One year on Jupiter is 11.86
Earth years long.
 Moons: Jupiter has 39 moons. The four
largest are Io, Europa, Ganymede, and
Callisto.

Jupiter

Jupiter has faint, dark rings composed of
tiny rock particles and dust.

The moon Io is volcanically active.

Jupiter rotates very quickly, and since it is
made of liquid and gas, it the planet
bulges at the equator and flattens at the
poles.
Saturn
Position: Sixth from the sun.
 Description: Saturn, like Jupiter, is known
as a ‘gas giant’ since it is made mostly of
hydrogen and helium gas. It is surrounded
by the most dynamic rings of all the
planets
 Atmosphere: approximately 96%
hydrogen, 4% helium with other trace
elements.

Saturn
Diameter: 120,536 km
 Distance from Sun: on average, 1 425
500 000 km
 Temperature range: -185ºC at the cloud
tops
 Day length: One day on Saturn takes 10.2
Earth hours.
 Year length: One year on Saturn takes
29.46 Earth years.

Saturn
Moons: As of 2004, Saturn has 33 moons.
The largest is Titan.
 Saturn’s beautiful rings are made of
chunks of rock and ice. They range from
the size of a grain of sand to the size of a
house.
 - Because Saturn is made of only gas and
liquid, it is less dense than water. This
means, if you had an ocean big enough to
set Saturn in, it would float.

Don’t copy what is in Italics.

Saturn
In 1997, a space craft called Cassini was
lauched on course to Saturn in order to
study the moon Titan. It arrived in 2004
(7 years later!!!). On January 14, 2005 the
Cassini dropped a probe called Huygens
to the surface of Titan. Titan is almost life
sustaining and the information this mission
gathers could shed light on how Earth
evolved into a life giving planet.
Saturn
This is the first colour
picture of Titan’s
surface.