1 / 24

4.5 The Outer Planets

What Do the Outer Planets Have in Common? What Are the Characteristics of Each Outer Planet?. 4.5 The Outer Planets. What Do the Outer Planets Have in Common?. Large Gas giants (no solid surface). Composition. Hydrogen and helium Ices of ammonia and methane

kalb
Download Presentation

4.5 The Outer Planets

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. What Do the Outer Planets Have in Common? What Are the Characteristics of Each Outer Planet? 4.5 The Outer Planets

  2. What Do the Outer Planets Have in Common? • Large • Gas giants (no solid surface)

  3. Composition • Hydrogen and helium • Ices of ammonia and methane • Strong gravitational forces (due to their size) keep these gases from escaping • Much of the material in gas planets is actually liquid because the pressure inside the planet is so high • The outer layers are extremely cold • Temperature increases inward with pressure

  4. Moons and Rings • All outer planets have many moons • Jupiter: at least 63 • Saturn: at least 61 • Uranus: at least 27 • Neptune: at least 13 • All outer planets have rings • Thin disks of small particles of ice and rock • Saturn’s rings are largest and most complex

  5. What Are the Characteristics of Each Outer Planet? • Scientists are constantly discovering new information about these planets and moons (using telescopes and space probes)

  6. Jupiter • Largest and most massive planet • Mass is 2 ½ times more than all of the other planets combined

  7. Jupiter’s Atmosphere • Thick atmosphere (hydrogen and helium) • Great Red Spot: Storm larger than Earth! • Similar to a hurricane • Never ending • 20,000 km long and 12,000 km wide

  8. Jupiter’s Structure • Dense core of rock and iron at its center • Pressure is 30 times greater than on the surface • It has a thick mantle of liquid hydrogen and helium

  9. The Moons of Jupiter

  10. Ganymede: • Jupiter’s largest moon. (Larger than Mercury) • Surface has dark and bright areas

  11. Callisto: • Second largest • Less ice • Most craters

  12. Io: • Not icy • May have 300 active volcanoes

  13. Europa: • Ice • Liquid water below the ice (possibly)

  14. Saturn • 2nd largest planet • Thick atmosphere (hydrogen and helium)

  15. Saturn’s Rings • Made up of chunks of ice and rock going around Saturn • Some are kept in place from gravity of tiny moons

  16. Saturn’s Moons • Titan (largest…larger than Mercury) • Thick atmosphere (nitrogen and methane) • Some features formed from flowing liquid • Mimas and Tethys: craters and trenches • Enceladus: Ice and water erupt in geysers • Phoebe: ring of material found

  17. Uranus • 4 times diameter of Earth • Looks blue-green due to methane in atmosphere • Rings

  18. Uranus’s Moons • The 5 largest moons have icy, cratered surfaces

  19. A Tilted Planet • Tilted at an angle of about 90 degrees from the vertical • The tilt is due to an object hitting Uranus and knocking it on its side • Rotation = 17 hours

  20. Neptune • Similar to Uranus in size and color • Blue and cold • Atmosphere contains visible clouds • Interior is hot (forming clouds and storms at the surface)

  21. Neptune’s Atmosphere • Great Dark Spot (about the size of Earth) • Scientists think it is probably a giant storm that lasted a short period of time

  22. Neptune’s Moons • 13 moons • Triton (largest) • Thin atmosphere • Nitrogen ice over south pole

  23. THE END

More Related