Gas Giant Interiors
1 2016-05-13T08:28:12+00:00 Frank Fueten dee05431475b87c68ebf15bbea4bfeac11808e9e 16 1 These cut-aways illustrate interior models of the giant planets. The planetary cores of gas giants Jupiter and Saturn are overlaid by a deep layer of metallic hydrogen, whereas the mantles of the ice giants Uranus and Neptune are composed of heavier elements. plain 2016-05-13T08:28:12+00:00 Frank Fueten dee05431475b87c68ebf15bbea4bfeac11808e9eThis page is referenced by:
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Water in the outer Solar system
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The outer planets
As we have already seen the outer planets are much larger and differ from the terrestrial planets in that they are not rocky worlds. For the purposes of examining the role of water on these worlds we can really separate them into 2 categories. Jupiter and Saturn are the large gas giants, while Uranus and Neptune are somewhat smaller and often referred to as ice giants. That name already hints at the significant difference; let’s quickly examine the gas giants first.Gas giants – Jupiter, Saturn
We can keep the discussion of water within the gas giants quite short, because they are indeed gas giants. Jupiter has an overall composition of approximately 90% hydrogen and 10% helium, while Saturn is composed of approximately 75% hydrogen and 25% helium. Both are only thought to contain traces of water and methane. Given the sizes of these planets, the absolute amount of water present within them may still be considerable, but water plays no significant role on these planets as far as we understand.
