Question | Answer |
How are the four gas giants are similar? | structure, atmosphere & rings |
How are the four gas giants similar in structure? | they do not have a solid surface |
How are the four gas giants similar in atmosphere? | they are thick and made up mainly of hydrogen and helium |
How are the four gas giants similar in rings? | each is surrounded by a set of rings |
How are the gas giants alike? | the size and mass of each are much greater than those of Earth |
The four outer planets do not have solid ______________________. | surface |
Which four planets are known as the gas giants? | Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune |
What is the composition of the gas giants? | their atmospheres are composed mainly of hydrogen and helium |
What is the composition of the rings that surround the gas giants? | made of small particles of ice and rock |
What is the most massive planet in the solar system? | Jupiter |
What is the Great Red Spot on Jupiter? | a storm that is larger than Earth and has winds that blow hundreds of kilometers per hour |
What are Jupiter ’s four largest moons? | Io, Europa, Ganymede & Callisto |
What is Jupiter ’s moon Io covered with? | active volcanoes |
What are Saturn’s rings made of? | chunks of ice and rock, each traveling in its own orbit around Saturn |
What is the largest of Saturn’s moons? | Titan |
Why does Uranus look blue-green? | there are traces of methane in its atmosphere |
How much larger is Uranus than Earth? | about four times the diameter of Earth |
What discovery made astronomer William Herschel famous? | he discovered the planet Uranus, the first new planet discovered since ancient times |
How is the rotation of Uranus unlike that of most of the other planets? | it rotates from top to bottom instead of from side to side, the way most of the other planets do |
What are Uranus’s five largest moons like? | They have icy, cratered surfaces and lava flows on their surfaces |
Which spacecraft sent many images of Uranus back to Earth? | Voyager 2 |
In the 1800s, how did astronomers predict that the planet Neptune would be discovered before anyone had seen it? | Uranus was not quite following the orbit astronomers predicted for it, so they hypothesized that the gravity of another planet was affecting Uranus’s orbit |
How is the Great Dark Spot like the Great Red Spot? | both were probably storms |
Which is the largest of Neptune’s moons? | Triton |
How often does Pluto revolve around the sun? | |
What is more than half of Pluto’s size? | one of its moons |
Why have astronomers decided that Pluto should no longer be called a planet? | It is so small that it may be only the largest of thousands of objects revolving around the sun beyond Neptune |