The Gas Giants

Read 11.1 Exploring the Outer Planets to learn about the exploration of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune by spacecraft like Pioneer, Voyager, Galileo, and Cassini, including the grand tour of the giant planets by Voyager 2.
Voyager’s Grand Tour remains one of the most impressive space missions of all time. Using gravitational assists, Voyager 2 was able to visit all four of the gas giants. Check out the video Voyager’s Grand Tour to see the incredible trajectory of the Voyager 2 mission. If you like, you can play with the Eyes on the Solar System - Voyager’s Grand Tour simulation for yourself.
The Cassini Mission to Saturn produced some of the most incredible images of Saturn, its rings, and moons. Check out this artistic compilation of raw images from the mission set to music: Cassini Mission.
Explore 11.2 The Giant Planets to understand the characteristics of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, including their compositions, internal structures, magnetic fields, and energy sources.
In a prior lesson, we learned how gravity and temperature both play a role in gas retention - causing the giant planets to be much larger than the terrestrial planets. Let’s revisit this topic and go deeper into understanding why the composition of the gas giants is so different than the terrestrial planets. Watch the video Gas Giants and explore the Gas Retention Simulator and Gas Retention Plot for yourself.
Review 11.3 Atmospheres of the Giant Planets to explore the compositions, cloud layers, atmospheric motions, and major storms on Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
Check out the latest updates from the Juno Mission - the most recent mission to Jupiter. The pictures we are getting from this mission are truly astounding as you can see here, here, here, and here.