Creation – Solar System – Gas Giants Lesson 14, 2024
Officially there are eight amazing planets in our Solar System: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. In lesson 12, the four terrestrial planets were introduced. This week the four Gas Giants will be discussed.
Jupiter – If you weighed 70 pounds on the Earth, on Jupiter you would weigh 185 pounds.
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun. It is the largest planet in our solar system. This gas giant has a thick atmosphere and a dark, barely-visible ring. Its most noticeable features are bands across its latitudes that are orange, red, yellow, brown and white in color. It has a great red spot that is actually a hurricane. Jupiter spins faster than any other planet. It takes only 10 hours to go from night to day.
Jupiter is a very stormy planet. There are storms found throughout the atmosphere, and most of the storms seem to never end. The great red spot called “The Eye of Jupiter” is a giant storm that has been raging for some 300 years.
Jupiter is considered a gas giant because it does not have a solid surface. Under its atmosphere is a large liquid ocean of hydrogen and water.
Jupiter has 50 official moons and 12 unofficial moons. Galileo discovered the four largest moons in the year 1610.
Saturn – If you weigh 70 pounds on Earth, you would weigh 74.5 pounds on Saturn.
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun. In some ways, Saturn is similar to Jupiter, but it is much smaller. It is the second largest planet in our Solar System and it is a gas giant like Jupiter. Under the clouds of methane, hydrogen and helium, the sky gradually turns into liquid until it becomes a giant ocean of liquid chemicals.
Saturn is the least dense and the lightest planet in our solar system. It is made up of mostly hydrogen and helium, the two lightest elements in the universe. Because Saturn is such a lightweight planet and it spins so fast, Saturn is not perfectly round like most of the other planets. Like Jupiter, Saturn is wider in the middle and more narrow near its top and bottom.
Saturn is most known for its rings. It has several hundred rings. However it is not the only planet with rings. Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune also have rings. Its beautiful rings are 169,800 miles wide. The rings are amazingly thin. They are not solid but rather are made up of particles of ice, dust and rocks. The rings are held in place around Saturn by the moons that also orbit Saturn. The gravity of these moons also cause the gaps that are seen in between the rings.
Saturn has 53 official moons and 9 unofficial moons. Saturn is the furthest planet from Earth that can be seen without the help of a telescope.
Uranus – If you weigh 70 pounds on Earth, you would weigh 62 pounds on Uranus.
Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. It is very odd because Uranus spins on its side unlike all the other planets and most of the moons in our Solar System. Like Jupiter and Saturn, Uranus is a gas giant. Its thick atmosphere is made up of methane, hydrogen and helium, like that of Saturn. Uranus is an extremely cold planet. It has been called the “ice giant.” It is believed that Uranus is made up of rock and ice and has a large rocky core. It has also been suggested that it may have a huge ocean on its surface.
Uranus also has rings. They are made up of black dust particles and large rocks. Since Uranus spins on its side, its rings rotate up and over the planet instead of around the middle. Uranus has 27 moons.
Neptune – If you weigh 70 pounds on the Earth, you would weigh 78.5 pounds on Neptune.
Neptune is the 8th planet from the Sun. It was discovered in 1846. Neptune is the smallest of the four gas giants in our Solar System. Much like the other three, Neptune’s atmosphere contains hydrogen, helium and methane.
Neptune has a giant storm much like the storm on Jupiter. This storm is often called The Great Dark Spot. Neptune is a very windy place. No other planet has winds that are as strong as Neptune’s.
Little is known about Neptune. In August of 1989, Voyager 2 spacecraft visited the vicinity of the planet and took many pictures. The pictures show a brilliant blue planet with a few thin white clouds laced around its surface. Neptune has six rings which circle the planet. Neptune has 13 moons that we know of so far.
Take Note: Asteroids, Comets, Meteors – All of these are remains. Remains consisting of rocks, metals, ice and dust. There are several theories given by astronomers concerning where these remains come from. I believe the true answer is found in God’s Word.
The utter lifelessness of the other planets in our solar system illustrates so well the truth that Earth is unique and specially created for life.
All of what God created, the Heavens and the Earth was “very good.” But, when Adam and Eve sinned all of creation started sharing in the process of dying.
The universe has been deteriorating and dying from the day mankind sinned and began their rebellion toward God. The remains provide us with evidence of this deterioration and death that is happening to the heavens.
For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Romans 8:22
