The Jovian Planets

1. The Jovian Planets The Gas Monsters.

2. Jupiter

3. Size of Jupiter • Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and by far the largest. Jupiter is more than twice as massive as all the other planets combined (318 times Earth). Orbit: 778,330,000 km (5.20 AU) from Sun Diameter: 142,984 km (equatorial) Mass: 1.900e27 kg

4. Mythology • Jupiter (a.k.a. Jove; Greek Zeus) was the King of the Gods, the ruler of Olympus and the patron of the Roman state.Zeus was the son of Cronus (Saturn).

5. Composition • The gas planets do not have solid surfaces, their gaseous material simply gets denser with depth.

6. Composition • Jupiter is about 90% hydrogen and 10% helium with traces of methane, water, ammonia and "rock".

7. Jupiter and the other gas planets have high velocity winds which are confined in wide bands of latitude. • The winds blow in opposite directions in adjacent bands. • Slight chemical and temperature differences between these bands are responsible for the colored bands that dominate the planet's appearance. • The light colored bands are called zones; the dark ones belts.

8. Atmospheric Belts and Zones

9. Atmosphere • The interior heat of Jupiter probably causes convection deep within Jupiter's liquid layers and is probably responsible for the complex motions we see in the cloud tops.

10. Voyager Space Craft • The voyager space crafts have given us much of the information we know about Jupiter and Saturn

11. Clouds and Spots

12. The Great Red Spot

13. GRS • The Great Red Spot (GRS) has been observed from Earth for more than 300 years The GRS is an oval about 12,000 by 25,000 km, big enough to hold two Earths. Other smaller but similar spots have been known for decades.

14. Interior of Jupiter

15. Metallic Hydrogen?

16. IMPACT! • In July 1994, Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 collided with Jupiter with spectacular results

17. Jupiter has rings like Saturn's, but much fainter and smaller (right). They were totally unexpected and were only discovered when two of the Voyager 1 scientists insisted that after traveling 1 billion km it was at least worth a quick look to see if any rings might be present

18. Moons • Galileo's discovery, in 1610, of Jupiter's four large moons Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, are now known as the Galilean moons). • Jupiter has 16 known satellites, the four large Galilean moons and 12 small ones

19. Saturn

20. Mythology • In Roman mythology, Saturn is the god of agriculture. • The associated Greek god, Coronus, was the son of Uranus and Gaiaand the father of Zeus (Jupiter). • Saturn is the root of the English word "Saturday"

21. Mass, Size, and Distance • M =6.58 x 1026 kg • Diameter = 119,000 km equatorial and 107,000 polar. • Distance to sun = 9.52 AU or 1,426,000,000 km

22. Orbit • Saturn’s orbit is almost spherical. • The planet is inclined about 27 degrees from vertical.

23. Composition • Like Jupiter, Saturn is about 75% hydrogen and 25% helium with traces of water, methane, ammonia and "rock

24. Saturn’s Interior

25. Saturn’s Rings

26. Ring Composition • The rings are actually composed of innumerable small particles each in anindependent orbit. • They range in size from a centimeter or so to several meters. • A few kilometer-sized objects are also likely.

27. Close-up of rings

28. Moons—15!

29. Titan • Second largest moon in the Solar System

30. TITAN IS THE ONLY MOON TO HAVE A KNOWN ATMOSPHERE

31. Uranus

32. Mythology • Uranus is the ancient Greek deity of the Heavens, the earliest supreme god.

33. Size, Mass, Distance • orbit: 2,870,990,000 km (19.218 AU) from Sun • diameter: 51,118 km (equatorial) • mass: 8.683 x 1025 kg

34. Uranus from Earth Uranus was the first planet discovered in modern times (March 13, 1781).

35. Composition • Uranus is composed primarily of rock and various ices, with only about 15% hydrogen and a little helium (in contrast to Jupiter and Saturn which are mostly hydrogen). • Uranus (and Neptune) are in many ways similar to the cores of Jupiter and Saturn minus the massive liquid metallic hydrogen envelope. • It appears that Uranus does not have a rocky core like Jupiter and Saturn but rather that its material is more or less uniformly distributed.

36. Atmosphere • Uranus' atmosphere is about 83% hydrogen, 15% helium and 2% methane.

37. Rotation of Uranus • Most of the planets spin on an axis nearly perpendicular to the plane of the ecliptic but Uranus' axis is almost parallel to the ecliptic. • At the time of Voyager 2's passage, Uranus' south pole was pointed almost directly at the Sun. • This results in the odd fact that Uranus‘ polar regions receive more energy input from the Sun than do its equatorial regions.

38. Rings • Like the other gas planets, Uranus has rings. • Like Jupiter's, they are very dark but like Saturn's they are composed of fairly large particles ranging up to 10 meters in diameter in addition to fine dust. • There are 11 known rings, all very faint; the brightest is known as the Epsilon ring.

39. Moons • Uranus has 20 named moons plus 1 recently discovered one which as yet has not been given an official name. • Unlike the other bodies in the solar system which have names from classical mythology, Uranus' moons take their names from the writings of Shakespeare and Pope.

40. Neptune

41. Mythology • In Roman mythology Neptune (Greek: Poseidon) was the god of the Sea.

42. Discovery of Neptune • After the discovery of Uranus, it was noticed that its orbit was not as it should be in accordance with Newton's laws. It was therefore predicted that another more distant planet must be perturbing Uranus' orbit.Neptune was first observed by Galle and d'Arrest on 1846 Sept 23 very near to the locations independently predicted by Adams and Le Verrier from calculations based on the observed positions of Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus.

43. Orbit, Mass, Diameter • orbit: 4,504,000,000 km (30.06 AU) from Sundiameter: 49,532 km (equatorial)mass: 1.0247e26 kg

44. Composition • Neptune's composition is probably similar to Uranus': various "ices" and rock with about 15% hydrogen and a little helium. • Like Uranus, but unlike Jupiter and Saturn, it may not have a distinct internal layering but rather to be more or less uniform in composition. But there is most likely a small core (about the mass of the Earth) of rocky material. • Its atmosphere is mostly hydrogen and helium with a small amount of methane.

45. Atmosphere • Like a typical gas planet, Neptune has rapid winds confined to bands of latitude and large stormsor vortices.Neptune's winds arethe fastest in thesolar system, reaching2000 km/hour.

46. Rings • Neptune also has rings. Earth-based observations showed only faint arcs instead of complete rings, butVoyager 2's imagesshowed them to becomplete rings with bright clumps.

47. Because Pluto's orbit is so eccentric, it sometimes crosses the orbit of Neptune making Neptune the mostdistant planet from the Sun for a few years.

48. Moons • Neptune has 8 known moons; 7 small ones and Triton.

49. Pluto

50. Mythology • In Roman mythology, Pluto (Greek: Hades) is the god of the underworld. The planet received this name (after many other suggestions) perhaps because it's so far from the Sun that it is in perpetual darkness and perhaps because "PL" are the initials of Percival Lowell. • Lowell predicted the existence of Pluto