Why Are the Jovian Planets so Different from the Terrestrial Planets?

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Growing up we all learned about the planets of the solar system. Most of us were taught that there were nine planets in all; Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. That lineup has since changed to exclude Pluto, giving us a total of eight planets. One thing we were not taught as children is that there are actually two different major types of planets; Jovian planets and Terrestrial planets. Without having the knowledge that the two different types even existed we obviously wouldn’t know the differences between the two. So, the purpose of this paper is to point out the differences between the two different types. Upon reading into the subject a little you will discover that the two types of planets differ in size and mass, density, composition and surface, planetary rings and moons, and distance from the sun (Bennett 158). Now that I have given you the purpose of the paper and the differences that I am going to explain, it’s probably a good idea to give you a short definition of what the two types are, and which planets belong to which classification. The Jovian planets, meaning Jupiter like, are the four large gaseous planets of the outer solar system: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune (Bennett 158). Next are obviously the Terrestrial planets. The Terrestrial planets, meaning Earth like, are the four rocky planets of the inner solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars (Bennett 158). Now that you have the general idea we can move on to explaining the differences. The first difference I would like to explain is the size and the mass of the two. The Jovian planets are much larger than the Terrestrial planets. In terms of both mass and radius, the Jovian planets are the true giants of the solar system (INTERIORS). These planets actually vary in size; none of them are even remotely the same. The smallest Jovian

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