Our Solar System – The Outer Planets

The outer planets of our Solar System, upon examination, help us to really understand the sheer size of not only our own system, but the whole Universe. There are four outer planets in our solar system. They are as follows: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.

Jupiter

As we venture out past Mars and the Asteroid Belt, we find the fifth and largest planet in our solar system, Jupiter. The largest planet in our solar system, Jupiter, is so big that over 1,000 Earths could fit inside it. Jupiter comes as close as 365 million miles away from the Earth at its closest point in orbit. That’s more than the distance from Mercury to the Earth, Venus to the Earth, and Mars to the Earth combined! Its distance from the Sun is even more remarkable: 460 million miles at its closest and 508 million miles at its farthest point in orbit. It takes Jupiter 12 Earth years to orbit the Sun and spins on its own axis every 9.8 hours. This means that Jupiter is spinning very quickly about its own axis, just short of 3 times as fast as the Earth spins. Jupiter is considerably colder than the Earth. Readings coming from the cloud tops show that temperatures are about -101 degrees Fahrenheit. Jupiter is marked by vast swirls of clouds and its most well known feature is the Great Red Spot. The Great Red Spot is a vast storm that measures about 24,860 miles across. That’s big enough to contain just shy of three planet Earths! Another important feature of Jupiter is its vast number of satellites, or moons. The current tally is at 63.

Saturn

Saturn is the second largest planet, located about 746 million miles away from our planet Earth. This is almost twice as far away as Jupiter is from the Earth! During its orbit around the Sun, Saturn ranges from 840 million miles to 938 million miles away from the Sun. It takes Saturn almost 30 Earth years to make it around the Sun. Like Jupiter, Saturn is spinning about its axis much faster than the Earth. Saturn takes only 10.67 Earth hours to rotate once about its axis. Cloud top temperature readings reveal temperatures of about -274 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s twice as cold as the record temperatures on Earth! Saturn’s most prominent feature is its rings, which are made mostly of ice and rock particles. Saturn’s ring system actually consists of many smaller rings instead of one large ring. The particles range in size from a couple centimeters to over a kilometer in size. Saturn, like Jupiter, also has a high number of moons, and that number currently holds at 60 moons.

Uranus

Uranus marks the point where we start discussing distances in billions of miles, not millions of miles. Uranus is 1.6 billion miles away from Earth, which is a little less than twice as far away as Saturn is from the Earth. This figure alone can help us once again begin to notice the vast scope of our solar system. Uranus ranges from 1.7 billion and 1.87 billion miles away from the Sun in its orbit. Uranus takes 84 Earth years to make one revolution around the Sun. In the average human lifetime, Uranus will make just one passage around the Sun. How long does a day on Uranus last? It takes Uranus just over 17 hours to revolve once on its axis. Temperatures on Uranus are even colder: -328 degrees Fahrenheit. Uranus boasts 27 known moons and a faint ring system.

Neptune

The last recognized planet in our solar system is Neptune. Neptune is closest to our planet Earth when it is 2.68 billion miles away. Neptune’s closest distance from the Sun is 2.77 billion miles and 2.87 billion miles away its farthest distance. That’s almost 30 times as far away from the Sun as planet Earth! While it seems that the time Uranus takes to orbit the Sun is extremely long, Neptune takes almost twice as long. It takes 165 Earth years for Neptune to make a single journey around the Sun. A day on Neptune also takes 17 hours. Temperatures at the cloud tops are just a slight bit colder than the temperatures on Uranus: -346 degrees Fahrenheit. Neptune has 13 known moons and a faint ring system. The most prominent feature of Neptune has to be the beautiful blue color that the methane in the clouds reflects back to the viewer. Neptune also possesses a great storm like Jupiter and is called the Great Dark Spot.

Conclusion

By Elena Athanasiou

As you can see, the farther we journey outward in our solar system, we can begin to see just how expansive the universe is. Our solar system orbits just one star, of billions stars in our galaxy, which is just one galaxy out of billions of other galaxies. Learning about our outer planets is just the beginning of a multitude of areas to discover about the Universe.

Wondering why Pluto isn’t on this list? Check out this article to answer all your questions about why Pluto isn’t a planet anymore.

For more information on the universe, visit NASA.gov.

Please visit my bio page to check out more interesting articles on Astronomy.