What is the difference between terrestrial planets and gas giants

The four outer planets have faster orbits and spins, a composition of gases and liquids, numerous moons, and rings. The outer planets are made of hydrogen and helium, so they are called gas giants. The gas giants of our solar system are Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. These four large planets, also called jovian planets after Jupiter, reside in the outer part of the solar system past the orbits of Mars and the asteroid belt.

Stellification is a theoretical process by which a brown dwarf star or Jovian-class planet is turned into a star, or by which the luminosity of dim stars is greatly magnified. The inner planets, or terrestrial planets, are the four planets closest to the Sun: Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. A gas giant planet is large enough that it retains a lot of hydrogen and helium. A rocky planet is one with a solid surface. So inconspicuous that it was not discovered until , Pluto is not a gas giant planet like all the others in the outer solar system.

The mostly rocky ones include Earth and three others Mercury, Venus, Mars that are more or less similar in interbal composition. Begin typing your search term above and press enter to search. Press ESC to cancel. Skip to content Home Social studies What are the difference between inner planets and outer planets? Social studies. Ben Davis August 13, What are the difference between inner planets and outer planets?

What do the inner and outer planets have in common? What are two similarities of the inner and outer planets? What are the similarities of the planets? What are the similarities and differences of the three planets?

What Is Saturn's Core Made of? What Is Mercury Made Of? What Is in the Middle of Saturn? The Weather on Each Planet. What Are the Characteristics of the Planet Jupiter? Terrains of the Planets. What Is Saturn's Surface Composition? Jupiter's Core vs. Earth's Core. Important Facts About the Outer Planets. A Description of Saturn. What Is the Average Temperature of Jupiter? To understand this difference, we need to look into the composition of these planets.

Terrestrial Planets have a solid surface whereas Jovian planets have a gaseous surface. The difference between Terrestrial and Jovian Planets is that Terrestrial Planets have a solid, rocky surface while Jovian Planets have a gaseous surface.

On the other hand, Jovian Planets constitute mainly of gases. The gases present in major amounts are ammonia , hydrogen, helium, and methane. These planets supposedly have a molten rock as its core though. Terrestrial Planets can also be called Telluric planets. Both the words, terrestrial and telluric have a Latin origin from the words terra and tellus, both of them mean Earth.

It is, however, important to understand that when we say Earth, we do not mean the planet Earth, but the solid, rocky nature of the planet Earth. Terrestrial Planets have a rocky, solid surface made up primarily of metals and silicate substances which are quite similar to the surfaces found in Earth, asteroids, etc. One important characteristic of terrestrial planets is that none of them possess rings.

We can see rings present around Saturn, but that is a Jovian Planet and we will come to that later. Terrestrial Planets can possess magnetic fields, but none of the terrestrial planets possess a global magnetic field, which means, none of them have a unified magnetic field all around it.

The moons of Mars and Earth have localized magnetic fields, but Earth is the only planet having a global magnetic field.