Great Balls of Gas: Jupiter and Saturn

ammonium hydrosulfide

ammonium hydrosulfide

Telescopic images of Jupiter and Saturn reveal clouds that are composed of ammonia ice, water ice, and a substance known as ______. These trace substances are used to create cloud materials.

hydrogen and helium

Similar to the Sun, Jupiter and Saturn primarily consist of _______.

Great Red Spot (GRS)

The _____ on Jupiter and the other off-white tints in the clouds of the two large planets are mysteries to scientists.

318

Jupiter is ____ times as massive as Earth.

95

Saturn is about ______ times more massive than earth.

Infrared light

This light illuminates Jupiter and Saturn intensely, giving off nearly as much energy as the Sun does.

Jupiter

The star that failed.

88,700 miles

Jupiter’s approximate diameter

Belts

Jupiter’s darker bands of clouds.

Zones

Jupiter’s lighter bands of clouds.

Equatorial Zone

The North and South Equatorial Belts flank the _____, which runs straight down the middle of the disk.

Great Red Spot

A storm in the South Equatorial Belt that at times has been as big as Earth and sometimes bigger.

Callisto

• Its surface is dark and covered in numerous white craters.

• The surface is probably dirty ice — a mixture of ice and rock.

• White craters are the result of large meteoroids, asteroids, and comet impacts that exposed the clean ice beneath.

Valhalla

The most noticeable marking; is a huge-ringed impact basin in Callisto

Europa

• The surface of this moon is ridged and resembles ice rafts.

• An underground ocean that is possibly 60 miles deep is covered by a frozen crust that is about 10 miles thick.

Ganymede

• It is the largest moon in the solar system, measuring 3,270 miles in diameter.

• Light and dark terrains, possibly ice and rock, are scattered across its splotchy surface.

Io

• There are more than 400 volcanoes scattered across the surface of this moon.

• It has no visible impact crater because all impact sites have been covered up by lava from the numerous volcanoes.

75,000 miles

Saturn’s approximate diameter.

Cassini Division

A gap in Saturn’s rings.

great white storm

This storm can be seen in Saturn's northern hemisphere about once every 20 to 30 years.

Titan

Saturn’s largest moon.

aeolian

The dunes in Titan are ______ — the wind shapes them or forms them, like Earth’s sand dunes in deserts or at the beach.

Cryovolcanism

The eruption of ice-cold material.