{"id":427,"date":"2022-02-11T21:30:09","date_gmt":"2022-02-11T21:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/astronomy\/?post_type=part&p=427"},"modified":"2022-02-11T21:30:09","modified_gmt":"2022-02-11T21:30:09","slug":"chapter-11-the-giant-planets","status":"publish","type":"part","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/astronomy\/part\/chapter-11-the-giant-planets\/","title":{"raw":"Chapter 11 The Giant Planets","rendered":"Chapter 11 The Giant Planets"},"content":{"raw":"
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\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1312\"]\"The Figure\u00a011.1<\/strong>\u00a0Giant Planets.\u00a0The four giant planets in our solar system all have hydrogen atmospheres, but the warm gas giants,\u00a0Jupiter\u00a0and\u00a0Saturn, have tan, beige, red, and white clouds that are thought to be composed of ammonia ice particles with various colorants called \u201cchromophores.\u201d The blue-tinted ice giants,\u00a0Uranus\u00a0and\u00a0Neptune, are much colder and covered in methane ice clouds. (credit: modification of work by Lunar and Planetary Institute, NASA)[\/caption]<\/figure>\r\n<\/div>\r\n
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Chapter Outline<\/h3>\r\n
11.1<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Exploring the Outer Planets<\/span><\/div>\r\n
11.2<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>The Giant Planets<\/span><\/div>\r\n
11.3<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Atmospheres of the Giant Planets<\/span><\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n
\r\n
\u201cWhat do we learn about the Earth by studying the planets? Humility.\u201d\r\n<\/span>\u2014Andrew Ingersoll discussing the results of the Voyager mission in 1986.<\/blockquote>\r\n

Beyond Mars and the asteroid belt, we encounter a new region of the solar system: the realm of the giants. Temperatures here are lower, permitting water and other volatiles to condense as ice. The planets are much larger, distances between them are much greater, and each giant world is accompanied by an extensive system of moons and rings.<\/p>\r\n

From many perspectives, the outer solar system is where the action is, and the giant planets are the most important members of the Sun\u2019s family. When compared to these outer giants, the little cinders of rock and metal that orbit closer to the Sun can seem insignificant. These four giant worlds\u2014Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune\u2014are the subjects of this chapter. Their rings, moons, and the dwarf planet Pluto are discussed in a later chapter.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n

This book was adapted from the following: Fraknoi, A., Morrison, D., & Wolff, S. C. (2016). Thinking Ahead. In Astronomy<\/i>. OpenStax. https:\/\/openstax.org\/books\/astronomy\/pages\/11-thinking-ahead under a Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0<\/a><\/div>\r\n
Access the entire book for free at https:\/\/openstax.org\/books\/astronomy\/pages\/1-introduction<\/a><\/div>","rendered":"
\n
\n
\n
\"The
Figure\u00a011.1<\/strong>\u00a0Giant Planets.\u00a0The four giant planets in our solar system all have hydrogen atmospheres, but the warm gas giants,\u00a0Jupiter\u00a0and\u00a0Saturn, have tan, beige, red, and white clouds that are thought to be composed of ammonia ice particles with various colorants called \u201cchromophores.\u201d The blue-tinted ice giants,\u00a0Uranus\u00a0and\u00a0Neptune, are much colder and covered in methane ice clouds. (credit: modification of work by Lunar and Planetary Institute, NASA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n

Chapter Outline<\/h3>\n
11.1<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Exploring the Outer Planets<\/span><\/div>\n
11.2<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>The Giant Planets<\/span><\/div>\n
11.3<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Atmospheres of the Giant Planets<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

\u201cWhat do we learn about the Earth by studying the planets? Humility.\u201d
\n<\/span>\u2014Andrew Ingersoll discussing the results of the Voyager mission in 1986.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Beyond Mars and the asteroid belt, we encounter a new region of the solar system: the realm of the giants. Temperatures here are lower, permitting water and other volatiles to condense as ice. The planets are much larger, distances between them are much greater, and each giant world is accompanied by an extensive system of moons and rings.<\/p>\n

From many perspectives, the outer solar system is where the action is, and the giant planets are the most important members of the Sun\u2019s family. When compared to these outer giants, the little cinders of rock and metal that orbit closer to the Sun can seem insignificant. These four giant worlds\u2014Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune\u2014are the subjects of this chapter. Their rings, moons, and the dwarf planet Pluto are discussed in a later chapter.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

This book was adapted from the following: Fraknoi, A., Morrison, D., & Wolff, S. C. (2016). Thinking Ahead. In Astronomy<\/i>. OpenStax. https:\/\/openstax.org\/books\/astronomy\/pages\/11-thinking-ahead under a Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0<\/a><\/div>\n
Access the entire book for free at https:\/\/openstax.org\/books\/astronomy\/pages\/1-introduction<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"parent":0,"menu_order":11,"template":"","meta":{"pb_part_invisible":false,"pb_part_invisible_string":""},"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-427","part","type-part","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/astronomy\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/astronomy\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/astronomy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/part"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/astronomy\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/427\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":428,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/astronomy\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/427\/revisions\/428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/astronomy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/astronomy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=427"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ccconline.org\/astronomy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}