Ice Giant Research Paper

Uranus is the only giant planet whose equator is nearly at right angles to its orbit and has 5 large moons and 22 smaller moons. It is, also, the only planet in our solar system to spin on its side. Uranus

First of all, Inner planets are different from Outer planets in many ways. The surface of Inner planets compared to Outer planets are rocky, Inner planets are denser, all the Inner planets are in the asteroid belt. “The Cosmos is all that is or was or ever will be. Our feeblest contemplations of the Cosmos stir us -- there is a tingling in the spine, a catch in the voice, a faint sensation as if a distant memory, of falling from a height. We know we are approaching the greatest of mysteries.”-Carl Sagan.There is nothing more than what there is. The surface of the Inner planets is very different from those of the Outer planets because, Earth compared to Uranus is completely different due to Uranus being mostly made out of gas. The Inner planets are also much denser than Outer planets. For example, Venus ' average density is 5.24g/cm3 as opposed to Neptune which is 1.33g/cm3. Lastly,

On Earth we have one moon to look at during the night. Can you imagine looking at 50 or 60 moons at night? If we lived on Jupiter, that’s what we would see! Jupiter has 50 definite moons. There are 17 moons scientists are still examining to make sure that they are moons. Some are smaller than 1.5 miles in diameter! Jupiter’s four largest moons, and four first discovered, are known as the Galilean moons, named after their discoverer Galileo Galilee in 1610.

Pluto is unlike the other planets in that it has an icy surface instead of a rocky surface, like the inner 4 (terrestrial) planets, or a deep atmosphere, like the next 4 (gas giant) planets.

Pluto, a dwarf planet, and Uranus, a planet, take turns being the most distant of the major bodies of our solar system in reference to the Sun For years, scientists were under the mistaken hypothesis that Pluto was the most distant. Scientists, in an attempt to study astronomical data, learned their hypothesis was inaccurate. Fortunately, it is of the scientists nature to investigate all data. On the basis of the data, the astronomers learned of the fact Uranus and Pluto have intersecting orbits. In addition, during the course of their investigation, they learned much of the nature of Uranus and Pluto.

In the Solar System there is nine planets total counting Pluto and eight not counting pluto. Named after the Greek god of the underworld Pluto is the ninth of the nine planets from the sun. Pluto was discovered in February 18, 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh. Plutos the only orbit planet in the Solar System after it was classified as an orbit planet back in 2006. The planet has nine moons total Charon, Hydra, Nix, Kerberos, and Styx. Although Pluto is the largest Dwarf Planet it's smaller than most moon of the other planets. Alongside Pluto is the eighth planet from the sun otherwise known as Neptune. Due to its blue coloration Neptune was named after the Roman god of the Sea. While neptunes the third largest planet with respect to mass, according to diameter it's the fourth largest. Neptune has 14 moons and a very thin collection of rings that are made up of ice and dust

craters. The smaller moons of Saturn, are mostly rock and ice, and are heavily cratered.

Uranus: It is the seventh planet from the sun and is referred to as a Gas Giant. Uranus rotates one full time on its axis every 17.2 hours and it turns in a direction opposite the rest of the planets besides

Uranus is a very peculiar planet. While planets like Mercury, Jupiter, and Earth and all the other planets in the solar system have some slight differences in orbits (like Venus rotating clockwise), all of the planets, except for Uranus, rotate at under a 30-degree tilt. The Earth has a 23-degree tilt, Jupiter has a 3-degree tilt, and Saturn and Neptune are both at 29-degrees. Uranus has a 98-degree tilt.

Uranus was officially discovered in 1781 by William Herschel. Apparently, you can see Uranus with your naked eye in the night sky if you know where to look. It is faint but still visible at times. Though it is visible no one knew it was a planet for a long time, everyone thought it was a star. William Herschel was looking through his telescope and was looking at this “star” (Uranus) and after performing some measurements he was able to tell that it was moving too fast to be a star, he decided it must be a comet. He and his fellow scientists kept looking into it, a comet that bright would have to be pretty close to the sun and it would be moving much faster than this thing is. They kept studying this mysterious “comet” they soon found that it

Saturn is the second largest planet in the solar system. Jupiter is the only planet that is larger. The gas giant is 72 thousand miles in diameter, almost ten times the size of Earth. In spite of its huge size, though, Saturn weighs very little. It is a very light gas planet. Saturn is the least dense planet in the solar system-- so light, in fact, that it would float in water. This planet is mostly composed of hydrogen and helium, like Jupiter, but it is much less dense. The combination of its light weight and fast rotation causes Saturn to spread out, or oblate, its center. Since Saturn is a gas planet, it does not have a solid surface. Spacecraft are unable to land on this type of surface. The clouds that are seen when looking at Saturn are just the top layer of a very deep layer that covers a center of liquid hydrogen. The clouds are blown by constant winds that reach speeds up to one thousand miles per hour at the equator of the planet (“Great Space Place”).

Uranus and Neptune are distinctively bluer than Jupiter and Saturn, because Uranus and Neptune both have atmospheres that contain significant amounts of methane. Uranus's atmospheric composition is 2.3% methane, and Neptune's is 3% methane. Methane resides in the upper atmosphere of these planets, where the temperature is low. Methane and water condense to form ice crystals in the upper atmosphere, and because methane freezes at a lower temperature than water, methane forms the higher clouds in the atmosphere. Methane absorbs red light and scatters blue and green, giving these planets their blue-green color. In comparison to size, Jupiter and Saturn both contain a small rocky terrestrial core which is surrounded by liquid metallic hydrogen,

Uranus’ atmosphere is mostly helium and hydrogen. Uranus doesn't have a firm surface. Its atmosphere is broken into layers based on pressure and temperature. The first layer of the atmosphere is the troposphere, which is the most dense and extends 30 miles from the surface. The next layer of Uranus’ atmosphere is the stratosphere, which contains ethane smog that makes the planet look dull. Uranus’ atmosphere is the coldest in the solar system. Uranus is mainly made of ices, water, methane, and ammonia. Most planets have rocky molten cores, but Uranus has an icy center. The core is 9,000°F. Uranus has a set of rocky rings around its equator that is made of rocks and ice. It is known that there are 13 rings in two systems.

our solar system, but they are unimportant compared to the nine major planets. In this paper I will discuss the planets and how they are each unique.

The knowledge of what the inner core is made up is still and will remain unknown until we can create a satellite that can make into the atmosphere of Jupiter and the other gas planets. Jupiter's atmosphere was also found to be quite turbulent. It is also know that Jupiter spins faster than any other planet. This indicates that Jupiter's winds are driven in large part by its internal heat rather than from solar input as on Earth. The vivid colors seen in Jupiter's clouds are probably the result of subtle chemical reactions of the trace elements in Jupiter's atmosphere, perhaps involving sulfur whose compounds take on a wide variety of colors, but the details are unknown. The colors correlate with the cloud's altitude: blue lowest, followed by browns and whites, with reds highest. Sometimes we see the lower layers through holes in the upper ones. Then we have the Great Red Spot that everyone can identify as Jupiter. This reddish color of the “Great Red Spot” is a puzzle to scientist, but several chemicals, including phosphorus, have been proposed as a reason. In fact, the color and mechanisms driving the appearance of the entire atmosphere are still not well understood. This spot has been seen by Earthly observers for more than 300 years. Robert Hooke discovered it in the 17th century. The GRS is an oval about 12,000 by 25,000 km, big enough to hold two Earths. Another interesting feature about Jupiter is that it