Terrestrial Planets Essay

Jupiter Research Jupiter is the fifth and largest planet in our solar system. This gas giant has a thick atmosphere, 17 moons, and a dark, barely-visible ring. Its most prominent features are bands across its latitudes and a great red spot, (which is a storm). Jupiter is composed mostly of gas.

Venus + Mars: Compare and contrast the evolution of the atmospheres of Mars, Venus, and Earth.

The reading on terrestrial planets from chapter 6 provides readers with a little insight on the similarities and differences between the planets. These planets include Earth, Venus, Mercury, and Mars. Although these planets have very different properties, they are connected due to their history. There are scientific laws that help people understand, compare, and contrast these planets, such as gravity, chemical composition, and temperature.

core of heavier elements. The composition of Saturn, is less dense than water, and would

these planets have different names mostly consisted of numbers and letters. No indications of life

As our proto-sun was forming and spinning gases such as hydrogen and helium were pushed to outer rings of the nebula. Dust grains near the sun started to collide and overtime the particles and the collisions grew larger. Furthermore, gravity pulled these some of pieces together at a faster rate and over time this process created small planets or planetesimals . As these planetesimals grew larger they combined and created the planets closest to the sun : Mercury, Venus, Mars and Earth.

Uranus does not have a rocky core. Uranus atmosphere is 83% hydrogen,15% helium,2% methane. Like the other gas planets, Uranus has bands of clouds that blow around rapidly. Uranus has a type of blueish color from all of the gases that are on the planet. It gets to about 9,000 Fahrenheit at the core of the planet. Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. It has the third-largest planetary radius and fourth-largest planetary mass in the Solar System.

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”).

There are many differences between the Terrestrial, Jovian, and Dwarf planets. The Terrestrial planets are the four inner planets that are closer to the sun which are Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. These planets do not have a lot of atmosphere. They are little and dense. The Jovian planets are the opposite. They are big, have thick atmospheres, and are low density. There are three qualifications for something to be a planet. A Dwarf planet meets two of the qualifications. The first is that it orbits the sun. The second is that it a sufficient mass to make it spherical. The third is that it has cleared the area around its orbit. This last qualification is the one that Pluto falls short on, it has not cleared its orbit thus making it a Dwarf

Mars and Venus are both known to have nitrogen in their atmospheres. When you compare the amount of nitrogen between Venus, Earth, and Mars you will notice that Earth does contain more nitrogen than the neighboring planets. Because the atmosphere on Venus is so thick, it does make the total nitrogen content much higher than Earths. The nitrogen molecules that are found are most likely the source of meteorites. There are multiple differences that can be found between the atmospheres between Venus and Mars. One prime example is that while Venus has a thick, hot and dry atmosphere, Mars is thinner and much colder. Mars has about 10,000 times less the amount of carbon dioxide in its atmosphere as opposed to Venus. Mars is often referred to as the

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 and Neptune are more blue then Jupiter and Saturn because they both lack metallic hydrogen mantles which are found on Jupiter and Saturn. Uranus and Neptune are mostly out with out the hydrogen mantles. Uranus and Neptune’s internal structures have rocky cores the size, they both have thick slushy mantles of water ammonia and methane ices, and they have shallow atmospheres. Jupiter and Saturn also have rocky cores along with metal and hydrogen compound cores. They also have layers of metallic hydrogen mantles, and have visible cloud tops.

The first exoplanet found, Peg 51 b, challenged the then present theory of giant planet formation. Models of giant planet formation stated that Jupiter-like planets form at distances of 4-5 AU, AU being the distance from

solar system. It is made up of nine planets which range in size and make-up. The nine major planets in our solar system are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. There are also many other minor planets which are also in

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