The Outer Planets

JUPITER Jupiter is the 5 th planet in line to the Sun Galileo Galilei was the first astronomer to discover Jupiter with his telescope. The discovery of Jupiter changed astronomy from being Earth centered, to the now viewed theory that we orbit the SUN. Jupiter has at least 63 moons. Approximately 466 million miles from the Sun.

Jupiter’s rotation around the sun is the equivalent to 12 earth years! The rotation on it’s axis however is only 10 hours Earth time. (This makes Jupiter the fastest spinning planet in the Solar System) Jupiter has an “eye”. It’s a constant storm on the planet’s surface.

Saturn The 6 th planet from the Sun. Saturn is unique because it has visible rings that surround the planet. It is 10 times larger than the Earth. Saturn has 31 moons that orbit the planet. Saturn is also a fast spinning planet, finishing its axis rotation at 10 hours and 40 minutes. It’s rotation around the sun, however takes 29 and a half Earth years!

Saturn is 887 million miles from the Sun About 9.4 times bigger than the Earth The rings on Saturn are only visible by use of a telescope, and are made up of ice chunks and rocks.

Uranus The 7 th planet in the orbit around the sun This planet is the only planet that spins on it’s side. Uranus has 27 moons, and can complete a full day’s orbit in Earth Hours. It takes Uranus a whopping 84 years to complete a full rotation around the sun! It’s 4 times as big as Earth It’s 1,784 million miles from the Sun

Neptune 8 th in line from the sun Neptune is over 2,794 miles from the sun It takes Neptune almost 165 years to make a full orbit around the sun, but only 19 hours to rotate fully on it’s axis. Neptune is known as “the Blue Giant” It’s about 4 times the size of Earth.

Neptune was named after the Roman God of the sea. Neptune also has rings. Neptune has 8 known moons. – Triton, one of the moons, has the coldest temperatures in the solar system.

Pluto Pluto is the last in line of the planets from the sun. Pluto is the 9 th planet. There has been much controversy of whether Pluto really is a planet or not. Pluto has only one moon, just like Earth. About 1/5 the size of Earth. Pluto is known as a “Dwarf Planet”

It takes Pluto only 6 and a half hours to make a full day’s rotation, but it takes the planet almost 250 years to rotate around the sun one time. Pluto does not have an accurate distance from the Sun, but we’ve sited it around 2.8 to 4.6 billion miles.