Group 1 The Gas Giant Planets

The Gas Giants

The Gas Giants are the 4 gas planets that are out beond the asteroid belt. They are Jupiter, Satern, Uranus and Neptune. But why did these planets form?

Why did the gas giants formed?

The Gas giants formed in the early days of the solar system from a cloud of gas, just like the sun. The reason that they didn't become stars was that they weren't big enough to start nucular fusion! This ment that they were only planets and not stars.

Do the Gas giants have anything in common?

Yes they do, and it is a very sutle thing in commen. They all have rings!! Yes, contary to pobular belief, all the Gas Giants have rings, not just Saturn. The reason that most people think that only saturn has rings because they are the most obvious but they all have some very faint rings like Jupiter and Neptune, or some very defernate rings like Saturn or Uranus.

Another thing that they have in common is that they all have a solid core, surrounded by metallic helium.

Jupiter_interior.png

So where do the gas giants come in the order of the planets and in what order?

The Gas giants come after Mars in the order and in the order of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

So how big are they?

Well the biggest is Jupiter which is 1.8986×1027 kg or 317.8 Earths!! The next biggest is Saturn at 5.6846×1026 kg or 95.152 Earths! the next biggest is Neptune at 1.0243×1026 kg or 17.147 Earths. The smallest is Uranus at (8.6810 ± 0.0013)×1025 or 14.536 Earths.

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