Rock Solid Worlds
These rocky planets are the closest to the Sun.
What are terrestrial planets?
This is the largest planet in the solar system and the namesake of Jovian planets.
What is Jupiter?
This reaction at the Sun’s core powers its energy.
What is nuclear fusion?
The Sun’s apparent surface is called this.
What is the photosphere?
The density of terrestrial planets is high because they are made mostly of these two materials.
What are metals and silicates?
This terrestrial planet is the hottest, thanks to its thick atmosphere of carbon dioxide.
What is Venus?
This icy giant rotates on its side along a horizontal axis.
What is Uranus?
The Sun's core produces an enormous number of these almost massless particles every second.
What are neutrinos?
During a total eclipse, this outermost layer of the Sun becomes visible.
What is the corona?
This planet’s thick atmosphere is composed mainly of oxygen, nitrogen, and water vapor.
What is Earth?
The slow rotation of terrestrial planets contributes to this planetary feature.
What is a lack of strong magnetic fields?
Jovian planets are mostly made of these two elements, giving them their low density.
What are hydrogen and helium?
This transparent zone inside the Sun allows energy to travel outward by radiation.
What is the radiation zone?
These dark areas of the Sun are cooler than their surroundings and are linked by magnetic field lines.
What are sunspots?
The Jovian planets are high in mass but have low densities because they are made primarily of this state of matter.
What is gas?
This type of crater forms when an asteroid collides with the solid surface of a terrestrial planet.
What is an impact crater?
This is the term for the distance at which moons are destroyed by a planet’s gravity.
What is the Roche limit?
This visible pattern in the convection zone is caused by hot material rising and cooler material sinking.
What is granulation?
This large sheet of ejected gas can persist for days or weeks near sunspots.
What is a solar prominence?
Mars has the largest known volcano in the solar system, called this.
What is Olympus Mons?
These two major differences distinguish terrestrial planets from one another.
What are plate tectonics and atmospheres?
The strong magnetic fields of Jovian planets are due to this type of interior layer found in Jupiter and Saturn.
What is metallic hydrogen?
The process of fusion converts mass into this type of output.
What is energy?
This explosive event on the Sun releases an enormous amount of energy in just seconds or minutes.
What is a solar flare?
This is the main reason the Sun and Jovian planets have strong magnetic fields.
What is rapid rotation?