*Intro On Aug 24 2006 Pluto was officially stripped of its planetary status, thus confirming it as a dwarf planet. The reason being, is it did not meet the new qualifications to be confirmed a planet in our solar system. This now only leaves us with 8 planets that orbit are star that we call the sun. Even though all these heavenly bodies in our solar system are classified as the same thing (planets) They differ in many way, There is two categories for the planets in our solar system, one is a terrestrial planet, and the other is a Jovian planet, their distance from the sun, composition and the satellites that orbit these planets are some good examples of how they differ and just why they are split in two categories.
*Paragraph one Distance/ and reason why terrestrial planets are always close to sun and Jovian planets are always far away
One of the big difference’s from gas giants and terrestrial planets is the distance from the sun. All terrestrial planets are relatively a lot closer to the sun vs Jovian planets. The outer most terrestrial planet is mars and it is at the most 154.8 million miles away from the sun and at the nearest it is 128.4 million miles away, while the closest Jovian planet is Jupiter and that is at the most 506.9 million miles away and it can be as close as 460.4 million miles (citation) away which is still a very big difference from mars. This is just an idea of how much the distance differs, The reason being is the formation of the solar system, If you have two clouds of gas and dust from the sun (one is far away and cold while the other is close and hot), the gases from the inner cloud will be lost before it collapses but the outer cloud on the other hand will expand and collapse. In the end the inner planets end up being mainly composed of metals and rock while the outer planets end up being mainly composed of gases and water. (Citation) also because the outer planets are Outside the frost line, temperatures are cooler and hydrogen compounds are able to condense into ices.(citation) Rock and metal are still present in the outer solar system, but both are outnumbered and outweighed by the hydrogen compounds, this is why Jovian planets are composed primarily of hydrogen compounds with traces of rock and metal.( citation)
Paragraph 2 Composer of planets and atmosphere
Venus and mars have a atmosphere that is compose of mainly carbon dioxide which is 95% on Venus and 96% on mars, Venus and mars also have nitrogen which is 3.2 percent on Venus and 2.7% on mars.(Citation) There is even small traces of argon on mars which equal out to about 1.6%, earth is the only planet whit oxygen in the atmosphere which makes up 21% of the atmosphere and mercury actually has no atmosphere(citation). Hydrogen and helium make up most of the atmosphere for the Jovian planets, for Jupiter and Saturn it makes up 90% or more of the atmosphere, and the remaining 10% or less is helium, Uranus and Neptune have about 80% hydrogen, 15 to 18% helium and the remaining 2 to 3 % is methane(citation). Just the composer of the atmosphere for Jovian and terrestrial planets differ greatly, but the actual composer of the planets do to. Lets compare mars to Saturn since they are good examples of each category, Mars contain a iron rich core about 1700 km, the core Is surrounded by a molten rocky mantle rich in iron oxide as that of the earth, overlain by a thin crust (citation) While Saturn contains a hot rocky core of heavy elements that is overlain with a liquid metallic hydrogen layer and a molecular hydrogen layer followed by the atmosphere. The main difference in these two types of planets is Jovian planets have relatively no solid parts in the planet it is mainly gas and liquid and terrestrial planets are mainly rocks and other solid material.
Paragraph 3 satellites
The terrestrial planets have very few satellites other wise know as moons. There is only 3 moons mars has 2 Phobos and Deimos while earth haves one(citation). This is because all terrestrial planets are relatively small earth is the largest of them and even the smallest Jovian planet Neptune is about 4 times larger than earth (citation). The greater masses of the Jovian planets give them a much stronger gravitational pull so they tend to pick up more satellites. Jupiter has the most known satellites it has an incredible 61 moons, Saturn itself has 31 moons like Jupiter some of them haven’t even been named(citation). Neptune has 13 moons and Uranus has 27 moons(citation) all in all The Jovian planets have an amazing 132 known moons while the terrestrial planets only have 3 moons, that is a big difference and it is all because of how massive the Jovian planets are compared to the smaller terrestrial planets.
*Conclusion
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