JOVIAN PLANETS

GROUP 5 – STEM 11
WHAT ARE
JOVIAN
PLANETS?
WHAT ARE JOVIAN PLANETS?

• Beyond our Solar System’s “Frost Line” – the region

where volatiles like water, ammonia and methane begin to
freeze – four massive planets reside. Though these
planets – Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune – vary in
terms of size, mass, and composition, they all share
certain characteristics that cause them to differ
greatly from the terrestrial planets located in the
inner Solar System.
• Officially designated as gas (and/or ice) giants, these
worlds also go by the name of “Jovian planets”. Used
interchangeably with terms like gas giant and giant
planet, the name describes worlds that are essentially
“Jupiter-like”. And while the Solar System contains four
such planets, extra-solar surveys have discovered
hundreds of Jovian planets, and that’s just so far…
The term Jovian is derived from
Jupiter, the largest of the
Outer Planets and the first to
be observed using a telescope –
by Galileo Galilei in 1610.
Taking its name from the Roman
king of the gods – Jupiter, or
Jove – the adjective Jovian has
come to mean anything associated
with Jupiter; and by extension,
• Within the Solar System, four Jovian planets
exist – Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.
A planet designated as Jovian is hence a gas
giant, composed primarily of hydrogen and
helium gas with varying degrees of heavier
elements. In addition to having large systems
of moons, these planets each have their own
ring systems as well.
• Another common feature of gas giants is their
lack of a surface, at least when compared to
terrestrial planets. In all cases, scientists
define the “surface” of a gas giant (for the
sake of defining temperatures and air
pressure) as being the region where the
atmospheric pressure exceeds one bar (the
STRUCTURE
AND
COMPOSITION
STRUCTURE AND
COMPOSITION
• In all cases, the gas giants of our Solar
System are composed primarily of hydrogen
and helium with the remainder being taken
up by heavier elements. These elements
correspond to a structure that is
differentiated between an outer layer of
molecular hydrogen and helium that
surrounds a layer of liquid (or metallic)
hydrogen or volatile elements, and a
probable molten core with a rocky
• Due to difference in
their structure and
composition, the four
gas giants are often
differentiated, with
Jupiter and Saturn
being classified as
“gas giants” while
Uranus and Neptune are
“ice giants”. This is
due to the fact that
Neptune and Uranus
have higher
concentrations of
methane and heavier
elements – like
oxygen, carbon,
nitrogen, and sulfur –
in their interior.
In stark contrast to the terrestrial planets,
the density of the gas giants is slightly
greater than that of water (1 g/cm³). The one
exception to this is Saturn, where the mean
density is actually lower than water (0.687
g/cm3). In all cases, temperature and pressure
increase dramatically the closer one ventures
into the core.
THE JOVIAN
PLANETS
JUPITER
• Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the
largest in the Solar System. It is a giant planet
with a mass one-thousandth that of the Sun, but
two-and-a-half times that of all the other planets
in the Solar System combined.
• Moons: Europa, Ganymede, Io, Callisto, Amalthea, Va
letudo, etc.
• Distance from Sun: 778.5 million km
• Orbital period: 12 years
• Mass: 1.898 × 10^27 kg (317.8 M⊕)
SATURN
• Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the
second-largest in the Solar System, after
Jupiter. It is a gas giant with an average
radius about nine times that of Earth. It has
only one-eighth the average density of Earth,
but with its larger volume Saturn is over 95
times more massive.
• Moons: Enceladus, Titan, Dione, Mimas, Tethys, I
apetus, Rhea, etc.
• Distance from Sun: 1.434 billion km
• Surface area: 42.7 billion km²
• Mass: 5.683 × 10^26 kg (95.16 M⊕)
• Orbital period: 29 years
URANUS
• Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. It has the
third-largest planetary radius and fourth-largest
planetary mass in the Solar System. Uranus is similar
in composition to Neptune, and both have bulk
chemical compositions which differ from that of the
larger gas giants Jupiter and Saturn.
• Moons: Umbriel, Titania, Oberon, Puck, Ariel, Cressid
a, Desdemona, etc.
• Distance from Sun: 2.871 billion km
• Orbital period: 84 years
• Mass: 8.681 × 10^25 kg (14.54 M⊕)
NEPTUNE
• Neptune is the eighth and farthest known planet from
the Sun in the Solar System. In the Solar System, it
is the fourth-largest planet by diameter, the third-
most-massive planet, and the densest giant planet.
Neptune is 17 times the mass of Earth, slightly more
massive than its near-twin Uranus.
• Moons: Triton, Proteus, Nereid, Hippocamp, Despina, T
halassa, etc.
• Distance from Sun: 4.495 billion km
• Surface area: 7.618 billion km²
• Mass: 1.024 × 10^26 kg (17.15 M⊕)
ATMOSPHERIC
CONDITIONS
• Much like their structures and compositions, the
atmospheres and weather patterns of the four gas/ice
giants are quite similar. The primary difference is
that the atmospheres get progressively cooler the
farther away they are from Sun. As a result, each
Jovian planet has distinct cloud layers who’s
altitudes are determined by their temperatures, such
that the gases can condense into liquid and solid
states.
• In short, since Saturn is colder than Jupiter at any
particular altitude, its cloud layers occur deeper
within it’s atmosphere. Uranus and Neptune, due to
their even lower temperatures, are able to hold
condensed methane in their very cold tropospheres,
•The presence of this methane is what gives
Uranus and Neptune their hazy blue color, where
Jupiter is orange-white in appearance due to the
intermingling of hydrogen (which gives off a red
appearance), while the upwelling of phosphorus,
sulfur, and hydrocarbons yield spotted patches
areas and ammonia crystals create white bands.
The atmosphere of Jupiter
is classified into four
layers based on increasing
altitude: the troposphere,
stratosphere, thermosphere
and exosphere. Temperature
and pressure increase with
depth, which leads to
rising convection cells
emerging that carry with
them the phosphorus,
sulfur, and hydrocarbons
that interact with UV
radiation to give the
upper atmosphere its
spotted appearance.
 Saturn’s atmosphere is
similar in composition to
Jupiter’s. Hence why it is
similarly colored, though
its bands are much fainter
and are much wider near the
equator (resulting in a pale
gold color). As with
Jupiter’s cloud layers, they
are divided into the upper
and lower layers, which vary
in composition based on
depth and pressure. Both
planets also have clouds
composed of ammonia
crystals in their upper
atmospheres, with a possible
 Uranus’ atmosphere can
be divided into three
sections – the innermost
stratosphere, the
troposphere, and the
outer thermosphere. The
troposphere is the
densest layer, and also
happens to be
the coldest in the solar
system. Within the
troposphere are layers
of clouds, with methane
clouds on top, ammonium
hydrosulfide clouds,
ammonia and hydrogen
sulfide clouds, and
• Next is the stratosphere, which contains ethane
smog, acetylene and methane, and these hazes help
warm this layer of the atmosphere. Here,
temperatures increase considerably, largely due to
solar radiation. The outermost layer (the
thermosphere and corona) has a uniform temperature
of 800-850 (577 °C/1,070 °F), though scientists
are unsure as to the reason.
• This is something that Uranus shares with Neptune,
which also experiences unusually high temperatures
in its thermosphere (about 750 K (476.85 °C/890
°F). Like Uranus, Neptune is too far from the Sun
for this heat to be generated through the
absorption of ultraviolet radiation, which means
 Neptune’s atmosphere is also
predominantly hydrogen and helium,
with a small amount of methane. The
presence of methane is part of what
gives Neptune its blue hue, although
Neptune’s is darker and more vivid.
Its atmosphere can be subdivided into
two main regions: the lower
troposphere (where temperatures
decrease with altitude), and the
stratosphere (where temperatures
increase with altitude).
The lower stratosphere is believed to
contain hydrocarbons like ethane and
ethyne, which are the result of
methane interacting with UV
radiation, thus producing Neptune’s
atmospheric haze. The stratosphere is
also home to trace amounts of carbon
monoxide and hydrogen cyanide, which
WEATHER
PATTERNS
 JUPITER
• Like Earth, Jupiter experiences auroras near its northern and
southern poles. But on Jupiter, the auroral activity is much
more intense and rarely ever stops. These are the result of
Jupiter’s intense radiation, it’s magnetic field, and the
abundance of material from Io’s volcanoes that react with
Jupiter’s ionosphere.
• Jupiter also experiences violent weather patterns. Wind speeds
of 100 m/s (360 km/h) are common in zonal jets, and can reach
as high as 620 kph (385 mph). Storms form within hours and can
become thousands of km in diameter overnight. One storm, the
Great Red Spot, has been raging since at least the late 1600s.
• The storm has been shrinking and expanding throughout its
history; but in 2012, it was suggested that the Giant Red Spot
might eventually disappear. Jupiter also periodically
experiences flashes of lightning in its atmosphere, which can
 SATURN
• Saturn’s atmosphere is similar, exhibiting long-lived ovals
now and then that can be several thousands of kilometers
wide. A good example is the Great White Spot (aka. Great
White Oval), a unique but short-lived phenomenon that
occurs once every 30 Earth years. Since 2010, a large band
of white clouds called the Northern Electrostatic
Disturbance have been observed enveloping Saturn, and is
believed to be followed by another in 2020.
• The winds on Saturn are the second fastest among the Solar
System’s planets, which have reached a measured high of
500 m/s (1800 km/h). Saturn’s northern and southern poles
have also shown evidence of stormy weather. At the north
pole, this takes the form of a persisting hexagonal wave
pattern measuring about 13,800 km (8,600 mi) and rotating
with a period of 10h 39m 24s.
URANUS
Uranus’s weather follows a similar pattern where
systems are broken up into bands that rotate
around the planet, which are driven by internal
heat rising to the upper atmosphere. Winds on
Uranus can reach up to 900 km/h (560 mph),
creating massive storms like the one spotted by
the Hubble Space Telescope in 2012. Similar to
Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, this “Dark Spot” was a
giant cloud vortex that measured 1,700 kilometers
by 3,000 kilometers (1,100 miles by 1,900 miles).
NEPTUNE
Because Neptune is not a solid body, its
atmosphere undergoes differential rotation, with
its wide equatorial zone rotating slower than the
planet’s magnetic field (18 hours vs. 16.1 hours).
By contrast, the reverse is true for the polar
regions where the rotation period is 12 hours.
This differential rotation is the most pronounced
of any planet in the Solar System, and results in
strong latitudinal wind shear and violent storms.
•The first to be spotted was a massive
anticyclonic storm measuring 13,000 x 6,600 km and
resembling the Great Red Spot of Jupiter. Known as
the Great Dark Spot, this storm was not spotted
five later (Nov. 2nd, 1994) when the Hubble Space
Telescope looked for it. Instead, a new storm that
was very similar in appearance was found in the
planet’s northern hemisphere, suggesting that
these storms have a shorter life span than
Jupiter’s.