Posts
Why are the outer planets known as "the gas giants"?
The inner planets are rocky and tiny compared with such mammoths as Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. These planets are sometimes called the gas giants'. because they are composed largely of hydrogen and helium, which make up about 98 percent of the universe.
There is a huge difference in character between Mars, which is the last of the rocky planets and Jupiter, which is the first of the gas giants. The reason for this difference has been the subject of long standing debate between astronomers. Many believe that the solar system formed from a vast cloud of swirling dust and gas. Most of this dust and gas collapsed to the centre of this mass, and formed the Sun. Part of the rest was pulled together by gravitational attraction, and made up the planets. The Sun contracted, became hotter, and erupted in an atomic fire, blowing away most of the nearby dust and gas. As they warmed up, the planets closer to the Sun lost their hydrogen and helium, leaving only their rocky cores. The outer planets on the other hand were too far away from the Sun's heat, and therefore kept their gases:
Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system, has a diameter of about 143000 km, which is about eleven times that of the Earth. Its volume is around one thousand times that of Earth. The outer planets though being so vast are extremely light in density-around a quarter of the density of typical material from Earth
Pluto is the only far outer planet that does not fit the patter. It is smaller than our Moon and extremely cold. It is believed to be completely covered by frozen methane, a gas that turns to ice at -182.5°C. How this small planet has got out there among the giants is a puzzle to astronomers. One theory is that Pluto was once a moon of Neptune, and during an extraordinary encounter between Pluto and Triton, which is the largest moon of Neptune, Pluto escaped and took up its own lonely orbit in space.
The inner planets are rocky and tiny compared with such mammoths as Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. These planets are sometimes called the gas giants'. because they are composed largely of hydrogen and helium, which make up about 98 percent of the universe.
There is a huge difference in character between Mars, which is the last of the rocky planets and Jupiter, which is the first of the gas giants. The reason for this difference has been the subject of long standing debate between astronomers. Many believe that the solar system formed from a vast cloud of swirling dust and gas. Most of this dust and gas collapsed to the centre of this mass, and formed the Sun. Part of the rest was pulled together by gravitational attraction, and made up the planets. The Sun contracted, became hotter, and erupted in an atomic fire, blowing away most of the nearby dust and gas. As they warmed up, the planets closer to the Sun lost their hydrogen and helium, leaving only their rocky cores. The outer planets on the other hand were too far away from the Sun's heat, and therefore kept their gases:
Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system, has a diameter of about 143000 km, which is about eleven times that of the Earth. Its volume is around one thousand times that of Earth. The outer planets though being so vast are extremely light in density-around a quarter of the density of typical material from Earth
Pluto is the only far outer planet that does not fit the patter. It is smaller than our Moon and extremely cold. It is believed to be completely covered by frozen methane, a gas that turns to ice at -182.5°C. How this small planet has got out there among the giants is a puzzle to astronomers. One theory is that Pluto was once a moon of Neptune, and during an extraordinary encounter between Pluto and Triton, which is the largest moon of Neptune, Pluto escaped and took up its own lonely orbit in space.
No comments:
Post a Comment
please let me know the suggention of your about this blog