Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, and Beyond

ice giants

ice giants

Uranus and Neptune are also known as ____ because their atmospheres surround cores of rock and water.

31,770 miles

Uranus’s equatorial diameter

30,775 miles

Neptune’s equatorial diameter.

84-year

During roughly one-fourth of Uranus' ____ orbit around the Sun, the North Pole faces roughly the Sun, while roughly the other one-fourth of the time, the South Pole faces roughly the Sun.

27

The planet Uranus has a ring system and ____ known moons.

28 degrees

Neptune's axis is tilted _____ from the perpendicular to its orbit plane.

Triton

Neptune’s largest moon — which is larger than Pluto.

Great Dark Spot

Neptune’s atmosphere features cloud belts, and occasionally a so-called _____ appears, which may be a very large storm.

248 years

Pluto moves inside the orbit of Neptune every ____ years for a few decades at a time, but the last such inside move ended in early 1999.

120 degrees

Pilot is tilted for about ____ from the plane of its orbit.

1,475 miles

Pluto is _____ in diameter.

Tholins

Chemical substances produced when methane particles or other hydrocarbons are struck by ultraviolet light from the sun and by galactic cosmic rays.

Charon

Pluto’s moon, it has a huge reddish-brown polar cap, which was probably created when gas that broke free from Pluto's atmosphere fell onto the massive moon and was exposed to cosmic rays and ultraviolet radiation, which created tholins.

New Horizon

Over 20 haze layers were discovered by ____ in its atmosphere. It also studied the known moons, hunted for additional moons, and looked for signs of a ring around the dwarf planet.

Tombaugh Regio

It is a sizable region that essentially resembles a heart-shaped box of Valentine's Day sweets and is named after the late American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh, who discovered Pluto.

Sputnik Planitia

The west lobe of the region which is brighter and smooth.

eastern lobe

Tombaugh Regio's ____ is clearly cratered; a large portion of it is about 1 billion years old.

Kuiper Belt

These are 100,000 icy bodies in the region between Neptune's orbit and 50 AU from the Sun.

Gerald Kuiper

Kuiper Belt is named after who?

Colliding

Kuiper belt prevent Neptune and Pluto from???

14

Neptune has ____ known moons.