•Terrestrial
Planets
–Relatively small
–Made primarily of rocky material:
•Si,
O, Fe, Mg perhaps with Fe
cores
(Note
– for earth H2O is only a very small fraction of the
total)
–
•Jovian
Planets
–Relatively large
–Atmospheres made of H2, He, with
traces of CH4, NH3, H2O, ...
–Surrounded by satellites covered with
frozen H2O
–
•Within
terrestrial planets inner ones tend to have higher densities
(when
corrected for compression due to gravity)
Planet Density
Uncompressed Density
(gm/cm3)
(gm/cm3)
– Mercury
5.44
5.30
– Venus 5.24
3.96
– Earth
5.50
4.07
– Mars
3.94
3.73
– (Moon)
3.36
3.40
•