12// gas giants of our sol. system

HEY :D!

after terrestrial planets, there are 4 more planets in our solar system, and all are gas giants. lets talk abt each one in order!

The fifth planet of the solar system and the first gas giant is Jupiter.

Jupiter is approx. 5 AU away from the sun (5x farther than Earth), and it is the biggest planet in the solar system with a diameter of 139 822km! It could fit at least 1 300 earths inside.

You can't land on Jupiter (or any gas giants) like you would on rocky planets because they don't have a defined surface. The whole planet is basically made out of (liquid) gas.

Jupiter is made mainly out of H and He and other hydrogen-rich gases (methane, water, ammonia), and has a small core made out of iron, ice, and rock.

I should mention that the gas liquifies when it is closer to the core, because of the pressure. This means that under all the visible gas is a big layer of liquid.

Jupiter is made of the same material as stars, so if he was 100x bigger, he would've been a star!

Jupiter rotates around its axis in 10 hours, which creates really fast wind currents, and gases move as quickly as 200 km/hr - this creates big storms like the great red spot

Jupiter has the biggest magnetic pole of all planets in the solar system and has a very thin ring system. Jupiter can be seen with the naked eye because it reflects light very well.

Jupiter has 92 natural satellites, most of them being asteroids, but there are 4 big moons - they are called Galilean Moons: Ganymed, Callisto, Io, and Europa.

Ganymed is the biggest moon in the solar system and it's bigger than Mercury. It has a gray color and it's covered in craters. There should be an ocean under its surface, with potential life conditions. Its core is made out of iron and the only moon with a magnetic field. This means that if Ganymed orbited the Sun instead of Jupiter, it would've been a planet.

the second moon, Callisto, is the most heavily cratered object in the solar system. It's pretty far away from Jupiter, and it should have an ocean under its icy surface. It has a core out of rock and ice.

the third moon, Io, is the closest to Jupiter and because of that, it has a deformed shape and orbit. Because of all the gravitational influence, Io heats up under the surface, and this creates a lot of volcanoes. Io has the most volcanoes in the sol. system! Io's surface constantly changes, so it doesn't appear to have any craters.

the fourth moon, Europa, is the biggest hope for extraterrestrial life. It's the smallest moon out of the Galilean moons and it's made mainly out of ice, and it has an ocean of water under its surface with some minerals. Water with minerals is a good condition for life to begin.

The sixth planet from the Sun is Saturn.

Saturn is almost 10 AU away from the Sun. It's almost the same size as Jupiter, but it has much less density (0,687 g/cm3), so it would be able to float on water.

Saturn is made mainly out of hydrogen and helium, and it has a small core made out of iron, rock, and ice (similar to Jupiter's). Its surface looks so smooth because clouds of ammonia cover anything under it. You can also notice Saturn's poles are in a hexagon shape!

One thing you first notice about Saturn is its ring system. It has the biggest ring system in our sol. system. The rings go as far as the diameter of the planet, but they are only about 1km thick.

The rings are made out of clusters of ice, ranging in size from a coin to a bus. Their orbiting speed depends on how far they are from the planet. The rings formed probably from a planet that crossed the Roche's limit.

What is Roche's limit? Roche's limit is a radius where an object (for example a moon) will be torn apart by (the planet's) gravity.

Saturn has 146 natural satellites, with 7 big ones, and others being mostly asteroids.

Saturn's biggest moon is called Titan, and it's also the second biggest moon in the solar system.

Titan is made out of ice and rock, and it's pretty far away from Saturn, so it has an atmosphere mainly from nitrogen. Titan is the only other object in the sol. system with bodies of liquid on the surface. The rain is made of hydrocarbons,

Saturn's other moon, Enceladus is similar to Europa, and it has geysers on its surface. It should have an ocean of water under its icy surface,

other big moons of Saturn are Rhea, Iapetus, Dione, Tethys, and Mimas.

The seventh planet from the Sun is Uranus.

Uranus is 19 AU away from the Sun, and with a diameter of 50 724km, it's much smaller than Saturn or Jupiter. It's still the third biggest planet, being 4x larger than Earth. Uranus is almost invisible to the naked eye.

Uranus has an atmosphere out of hydrogen and methane - methane gives it the pretty blue color. The mantle is made of water, methane, and ammonia, and the core is out of iron and rock.

Uranus has a ring system made out of organic material, but it's much smaller than Saturn's.

The most interesting thing about Uranus is its tilted axis. Uranus has its axis tilted by 98 degrees, with its ring system being basically vertical.

Uranus has 28 natural satellites. Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, and Oberon are the big ones.

Miranda has the biggest cliff in the solar system (Verona Rupes), along with its weird surface - the moon is probably the result of two objects colliding.

The eighth and last planet from the Sun is Neptune.

Neptune is 30 AU away from the Sun, and it's very similar to Uranus.

Neptune has an atmosphere mainly out of hydrogen, a mantle out of water, methane, and ammonia, and an iron and rock core.

Neptune has cloud belts, similar to Jupiter, and has a great dark spot. It's not permanent like Jupiter's great red spot, and similar spots appear and disappear often. These spots occur because of the convection currents from the inner part of the planet. These winds can be as fast as 2 200km/h

Neptune also has a ring system, but it's only from debris from collisions, and it's very thin.

Neptune has 16 natural satellites

The biggest one is named Triton, and it was captured rather than made along with Neptune. It has a retrograde orbit and a tilted orbit. Triton probably disturbed other Neptune moons - for example, Nereid, which is very elliptical and is very far away from Neptune. Triton has a mainly nitrogen atmosphere.

Neptune has 7 irregular moons (retrograde and tilted orbits) and others are regular moons.

Published by Adrian

12// gas giants of our sol. system

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