Essay on Uranus

Neptune has 14 different moons. Neptune’s largest moon is called Triton. Triton is the only large moon in the solar system to orbit in the opposite direction to its planet’s rotation, this is known as a retrograde orbit. The distance of its orbit is 354,759 km. Its orbit period takes 5.9 days (retrograde). Triton was discovered by William Lassell. Neptune has 5 rings. Neptune is very cold compared to Earth. It is -214 degrees Celsius. Neptune is the smallest of the ice giants. Despite being smaller than Uranus, Neptune has a greater mass. Below its heavy atmosphere, Uranus is made of layers of hydrogen, helium, and methane gases. They enclose a layer of water, ammonia and methane ice. The inner core of the planet is made of

Jupiter is the largest and the fastest spinning planet in our solar system. The storm on Jupiter known as the Great Red Spot could swallow up the entire Earth. Jupiter is made primarily of hydrogen and helium and has no solid surface. Its atmosphere resembles that of the sun. Stathopoulus (2000 – 2011), “ Sixteen moons have been identified, with Ganymede noted as the largest - it is bigger than both Mercury and Pluto” (Facts about Jupiter, para. 9).

Jupiter is a gas planet with a possible chance of a core. On the outside of Jupiter, what we can see, is its atmosphere. Jupiter’s atmosphere is layered. It contains hydrogen, helium (a

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.

They used radar/microwave radiometer aboard NASA's Cassini spacecraft, which revealed a turbulent atmosphere that has many similarities with Jupiter than previously realized. The new observations reveal a calm and narrow equatorial belt surrounded by stormy bands just like on Jupiter. Although regions at higher latitudes did show a different character that is unique to Saturn. Recently generated global microwave maps of Saturn exposed detail of a mostly stable atmospheric environment. There were some unpredicted diversity, including arid, desert-like patches in Saturn's atmosphere.

 This planet’s atmosphere is mostly hydrogen, with 15% helium and a little bit of

Ganymede is also the only known moon to have a magnetosphere, a magnetosphere is a region surrounding the moon in which its magnetic field is the predominant effective magnetic field. In Figure 1 you can see Ganymede's anti-Jovian hemisphere

Being a large planet, Uranus' mass is the equivalent of 15 Earths and has a radius of 51,118 Kilometers. Uranus also has 13 rings made up of a frozen waterline material and dust. The planet’s rings are darker than Saturn's rings and have larger rocks within them. They are about 38,000 Kilometers away from the planet's core. The rings are tilted as well.

It's obliquity is about 98 degrees. According to evolution, it is believed that the tilt is caused from a large spherical mass colliding with Uranus during the beginning stages of formation, but there is no definite reason for its tilt. This tilt also causes very unusual variations in its seasons. Uranus's year is the equivalent to eighty-four earth years. This means it has forty-two years in light followed by forty-two years of darkness. The rotation period is about seventeen and one-fourth hours, but since it is so far from the sun, the day temperatures and the night temperatures are very close. Uranus's Gravity is less than the gravity of earth, being at 8.69 meters per second squared. Meaning that if you weighed 100 pounds on earth, you would weigh 86 pounds on Uranus.

Jupiter’s four largest moons were found by Galileo Galilee. Those moons are known as the Galilean satellites. Jupiter has over 67 moons, most have been named but some still remain. (Chown, M.C 2011 Solar System, Touch Press 115-137). Jupiter also has rings. Like all the other gas giants Jupiter also has rings but unlike the other planets with rings, Jupiter’s are pretty much invisible, they are the very dark. It is impossible to see Jupiter’s rings with a pair of binoculars. In fact, no one knew that Jupiter has rings until they were first seen with a very powerful telescope in 1979. Jupiter’s magnetic field is about 20,000 times stronger than Earth’s magnetic field and Jupiter’s magnetic field ranges farther than Saturn and Jupiter’s gravity is interferes with Saturn’s orbit around the sun. Jupiter’s magnetosphere revolves with Jupiter every 10 hours. The space inside the magnetosphere is filled with solar winds and its own subatomic particles. Some are placed in the magnetosphere by the volcanoes on Io (one of Jupiter’s moons) which create a doughnut-shaped ring of Sulphur and sodium around

Neptune has some very distinct features. Some of the features are similar to Earth, but some are not even in the same realm as Earth. The Hubble Telescope recently discovered Neptune. It has found that there are dark vortices on Neptune. Vortices are similar to cyclones. There are bright companion clouds which form when air swirls up from the ground, causing gases to freeze into methane crystals. Neptune’s surface is not solid. Some astronomers believe that the core is rocky and the interior has a high density and slushy. The interior levels, the astronomers say, have thick layers of water clouds. Earth, on the other hand, has three parts that make up the surface. The first is the core. The outer core is liquid, and the inner core is solid.

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”).

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

Uncovering the mysteries of Jupiter is a crucial step for a greater understanding of our Solar System. Being the massive planet that it is, this mysterious planet may hold many answers to how our the Solar System formed and evolved. The understanding of the origins of the universe includes answers even to the formation of Earth itself. Many believe that the research of Jupiter will lead to discoveries on planet formation and the role of giant planets on the formation f stars and other smaller bodies. Mysteries of Jupiter include its composition, what is under its clouds, what is in its core and its magnetic field. Research on the amount of water in the planet will tell us about the

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