Gas Giant


Gas giants may still have a solid core – in fact, it is expected that such a core is probably required for a gas giant to form – but the majority of its mass is in the form of gas (or gas compressed into a liquid state). Unlike rocky planets, gas giants do not have a well-defined surface.

There are four gas giants in our solar system: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. These are also known as the Jovian planets.

From top: Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, and Jupiter (magnify) The term ‘gas giant’ is actually somewhat of a misnomer. For example, Jupiter has a thick atmosphere composed of mostly hydrogen gas and helium, with trace amounts of other chemicals such as ammonia. However, the majority of the planet’s mass is liquid hydrogen, possibly with a rocky or nickel-iron core.


Many of the extrasolar planets which have been discovered so far appear to be gas giants, making it possible that this type of planet is very common throughout the Universe.

However, it is important to note that the detection techniques that have been used to identify extrasolar planets so far (detecting doppler shift in the star’s spectrum due to the wobble induced by the planet’s orbit) are much more adept at detecting giant planets than smaller ones and therefore this sample may be biased.

In addition, with a few exceptions, the actual composition and structure of extrasolar planets have not been observed, making it possible that some of those planets are a type not observed in the solar system.

The upper mass limit of a gas giant planet is approximately 70 times that of Jupiter (around 0.08 times the mass of the Sun). Above this point, the intense heat and pressure at the planet’s core begins to induce nuclear fusion and the planet ignites to become a red dwarf star.

Interestingly there appears to be a mass gap between the heaviest gas giant planets detected (about 10 times the mass of Jupiter) and the lightest red dwarfs. This has led to suggestions that the formation process for planets and binary stars may be fundamentally different.


Image Caption: The gas giants against the Sun’s limb, at 1 px = 1 Mm The diameters are to scale. The limb of the Sun is in the background. From left to right, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Credit: Urhixidur/Wikipedia

Gas Giant

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