Gas GiantsGas Giants • made up almost entirely of gases

Jupiter

Saturn

Uranus

Neptune

• not Plutonot Pluto

outer outer planetsplanets

Jupiter Saturn Uranus Neptune Pluto

gasgiants

• larger• many moons

• far apart• rings

exceptPluto

most massive planet

Great Red Spot = ongoing hurricane

4 largest moons-

1. Ganymede- largest

2. Io- active volcanoes

3. Europa- icy crust - liquid H20 under

4. Callisto- icy surface with craters

Jupiter is more than 300 times as massive as Earth.

Jupiter, King of the Roman gods

Jupiter is really big !

Jupiter with one of its many moons.

Europa

There are currently There are currently 63 63 known moons orbiting known moons orbiting Jupiter.Jupiter.These are the largest These are the largest four.four.

Callisto

Io

Ganymede

View of Jupiter from Voyager 1

2nd largest planet

hundreds of rings- made of chunks of ice & rock

31 known moons- largest = Titan

Saturn Family Tour video

Titan, the Largest Moon of Saturn

• very thick atmosphere which is mostly nitrogen

• bigger than both Mercury and Pluto

• For all their solid appearance, in truth, Saturn's splendid rings are composed of trillions of separate objects – ranging from house-sized “boulders” all the way down to tiny specks of dust measuring just millionths of an inch across.

interactive puzzle about Saturn

• Saturn, god of harvest or time of reaping (sixth planet from the sun).

• Uranus, father of Saturn and

grandfather of Jupiter

looks bluish methane gas in atmosphere

discovered by William Herschel in 1781

axis tilted at 90o angle• possibly caused by collision w/ another object

rotates on its side from top to bottom

at least 22 moons

Great Dark Spot- similar to Jupiter’s Great Red Spot

at least 13 moons largest = Triton

The Great Dark Spot

Neptune,Roman god of the sea

•Not a planet anymore-minor planet

smaller & denser than gas giants- • smaller than Earth’s moon

discovered by Clyde Tombaugh in 1930

3 moons- largest= Charon• close in size & close together

Pluto, Greek god of wealth, ruled the dark underworld

Two small moons have been discovered orbiting Pluto, bringing the planet's known satellites to three.

Mercury

Venus

Earth

Mars

Saturn

Jupiter

Uranus

Neptune

Pluto

Sun

The Solar The Solar SystemSystem