Skip to content
Colleens Notebook
Chat
Science Notebook 7th
The Giver
Science Notebook 8th
English
Social Studies
More
Share
Explore
Solar System

icon picker
Outer Planets

Giants and Pluto
Gas Giants- more massive than earth and do not have solid surfaces
maily composed of hydrogen and helium and much of it is in a liquid state due to the extremely high pressures
ring- a thin disk of small particles of ice and rock
pluto is a terrestrial planet like the inner 4 planets
Jupiter
largest and most massive planet, 2.5 times the mass of all the other planets combined
Jupiters Atmosphere
great red spot: a hurrican like storm with blowing winds hundreds of kilometers an hour
Jupiters Structure
astronomers think that jupiter probably has a dense core of rock and iron
the pressure at the core is estimated to be about 30 million times greater than the pressure of earths surface
Jupiters Moons
galileo discovered jupiters 4 largest moons: io, europa, ganymede, and callisto
there are 79 total
Saturn
second largest planet composed of mainly hydrogen and helium
only planet whose density is less than water (it would float)
saturns rings
the voyager spacecraft discovered that each of the rings is divided into many thinner rings
broad and thin like a compact disk
saturns moons
titan: saturns largest moon is larger than mercury and has a very thick atmosphere
there are 82 total moons
Uranus (ur-uh-nus)(nevaeh is not allowed to laugh at this)
4 times the diameter of earth
appears blue due to traces of methane in its atmosphere
Discovery of Uranus
discovered by
William Herschel
⁠
in 1781
Exploring Uranus
images from voyager 2 show few clouds but allowed astronomers to calculate that uranus rotates in 17 hours
uranus’s axis of rotation is tilted at an angle of about 90 degrees from vertical (basically sideways)
Uranus’s Moons
voyager 2 showed that uranus’s 5 largest moons have icy cratered surfaces while some have lava flows
27 total moons
Neptune
Discovery of Neptune
in 1846 mathematicians calculated the orbit of an unseen planet that was affecting the orbit of uranus. neptune was discovered shortly after
exploring neptune
voyager 2 flew by neptune in 1989 and discovered a large spot, great dark spot, thought to be a strom the size of earth like on jupiter five years later it was gone
neptunes moons
triton: neptune’s largest moon
voyager images show its south pole is covered by nitrogen ice
14 total moons
⁠
Pluto
⁠
⁠
smallest planet in the solar system
has a single moon charon that is debatably cosidered to be a double planet instead of a moon
Plutos orbit
revolves around the sun once every 248 earth years
very elliptical orbit comes closer to the sun than neptune at certain parts of its orbit
Is Pluto Really a Planet?/Dwarf Planets
one of the larger objects that orbits the sun beyond neptune but was the first to be discovered
debated to be too small to be considered a planet

Want to print your doc?
This is not the way.
Try clicking the ⋯ next to your doc name or using a keyboard shortcut (
CtrlP
) instead.