Chapter 8

• Jovian planets- gas giants

• Jupiter
• 5.2 Au from sun
• 318 M earth
• 1.33 g/cm^3
• Composed mostly of H and He
• Failed star
• No solid surface
• We send a droid down and it got 200Km down and that is only .3% of
Jupiter
• Jupiter consists of
• Outer layer of 10% is gas, we think of this as its atmosphere
• Liquid hydrogen, next 10% exceeds temp of 2000K and pressure
500,000 that on the face of earth
• Most of Jupiter is this layer of metallic hydrogen. Magnetic field
generated here
• Core: layer of hydrogen compounds, rock and metal, contains
ten times the mass of earth but only the same size as earth
because of the high density pressures
• Magnetosphere- shields it from harsh solar winds. It deflects
them some 3 million km away
• 3 layers of cloud- lowest are water clouds-white, higher are
ammonium hydrosulfide- orange, highest are ammonia clouds-
yellow

• Saturn
• 9.54 Au from sun
• 95 M earth
• .71 g/cm^3
• Mostly H, He
• Uranus
• 19.2 Au
• 14 M earth
• 1.24 g/cm^3
• H compounds, rock, H and He
• Neptune
• 30.1 Au from sun
• 17 M earth
• 1.67 g/cm^3
• H compounds, rock, H and He

• Uranus and Neptune are not nearly as dense as Jupiter so it is possible to

have underwater oceans.
• All but Uranus generate a great deal of internal heat
• Jovian planets have several different types of clouds which is why we see
different colors
• On earth all we have are water clouds so they are all the same color
• Coriolis effect- the rotation of the Earth which divers the path of missiles
or rockets as well as winds, but Jupiter spins faster so its bigger
• Great Red Spot- huge storm on Jupiter- more than twice the width of earth

Jupiter's Moons - Io Europa Ganymede Callisto

• Galileo discovered them and they are all large enough to be dwarf
planets if they orbited the sun
• Io is the most volcanically active moon, because of tidal heating,
same concept that keeps our oceans moving must heat Jupiter's
moon
• Io's orbit is elliptical because of the orbital resonance it shares with
Europa and Ganymede
• Europa- covered in complete ice and we believe deep ocean beneath
• It may contain twice as much liquid water as all of our oceans
combined
• Ganymede- also has water surface, largest moon in solar system
• Castillo- also may have ocean, but interesting because it doesn't
have tidal heating so its completely unknown, furthest moon from
Jupiter
Saturn's moon Titan
• Thick atmosphere
• Second largest in solar system
• Thick atmosphere leads to methane rain
• Icy composition
• Titan has extremely similar surface conditions, just vastly different
composition, rivers, dirt, air and rock, just methane, ice, smog and
ammonia
Neptune's moon Triton
• Orbits the planet backward and at a high elevation to the equator
• Seems as if it was captured and used to orbit the sun

• Jovian moon compared to a terrestrial planet p 250, not too important

• Ring characteristics- ring particles orbit Saturn separately