The Family of Planets Terrestrial and Jovian and Their Differences
Nancy Johnson
Rasmussen College

Author Note This paper is being submitted on January 30, 2015, for Andrew Kocurek, Introduction to Astronomy course.

The Family of Planets Terrestrial and Jovian and Their Differences There are two groups of planets in our solar system according to astronomers. One is the inner planets called Terrestrial which are Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. The other is the outer planets called the Jovian planets which are Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. There are many differences between the Terrestrial and Jovian planets. To start the four planets closes to the sun are the Terrestrial and the four others are the Jovian planets and they are further from the sun (Howell, 2014). There are many differences between these two groups. To start Terrestrial planets are much smaller with a rocky cores, Jovian planets are much larger and are made up of gases (Mathew, 2011). Terrestrial planets chemical composition have very little hydrogen and helium. They are made of much heavier elements. Earth has more oxygen which weighs sixteen times more than hydrogen. Terrestrial planets are small, dense, and rocky. Jovian chemical composition is made up of hydrogen and helium. These planets are large, low density, and gaseous ("Terrestrial and Jovian Planets," n.d.). Terrestrial planets are almost void of moons. Mercury and Venus have no moon, Earth has one moon, and Mars have two very thin ones. Jovian planets have a large number of moons. Six of the moons in the outer solar system are larger than Pluto and one is bigger than Mercury. Jovian planets rotate more rapidly than the Terrestrial planets do. Jovian slowest planet is Uranus its rotation period is less than eighteen hours where the Terrestrial’s slowest is the Earth which rotation period is twenty-four hours. The magnetic field for Terrestrial planets is much weaker than Jovian planets ("Terrestrial and Jovian Planets," n.d.). Jovian’s smallest planet is nearly four times larger in diameter than Earth and its mass contains fifteen times more than Earth. Terrestrial planets density is five times than liquid water and Jovian’s density is low in density and about equal to liquid water ("Difference Between Terrestrial and Jovian," 2015). As we can see even though our family of plants has many differences