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You are here: Home / Space / Which Planets In the Solar System Are Known As Gas Giants and How Were the Gas Giants Formed?

Which Planets In the Solar System Are Known As Gas Giants and How Were the Gas Giants Formed?

February 21, 2020 by Karen Hill

When the sun began its nuclear energy production, the explosion sent gases, dust, and particles flying outward.

The lightest matter, such as the gases hydrogen and helium, simply flew farther away.

The farther reaches from the Sun were not effected as much by the Sun’s heat, so the gases remained relatively inert, they didn’t change into other, heavier forms.

This matter formed the outer planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, which are also known as the gas giants.

A gas giant is sometimes called a Jovian planet after the planet Jupiter.

Heavier material, which didn’t travel so far, and so reacted in part to the higher temperatures nearer the Sun, helped to create the inner planets, also known as the terrestrial, or earth-like, planets.

Related Facts

  • What Are the Outer Planets In the Solar System and What Are the Characteristics Of the Five Outer Planets?
  • What Are the Outer Planets, What Are The Names of the Outer Planets, and Where Are the Outer Planets Located?
  • What Is the Eighth Planet In the Solar System and How Is the Planet Neptune Similar To the Other Gas Giants?
  • Are All Planets Made of the Same Thing?
  • Who discovered that Planets Exist Around Other Stars in the Universe and When?
  • Who Discovered the laws of planetary motion and that planets orbit around the sun in ellipses?

Filed Under: Space

About Karen Hill

Karen Hill is a freelance writer, editor, and columnist. Born in New York, her work has appeared in the Examiner, Yahoo News, Buzzfeed, among others.

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