1) Jupiter acts as a shield for Earth, drawing comets towards the sun. One of its moons, Europa, may have an underground ocean suitable to support life. 2) Saturn is the second largest planet by mass. It has a diameter of over 120,000 km and orbits the sun from about 1.4 billion km away. Christian Huygens discovered Saturn's rings in 1659. 3) Uranus and Neptune have atmospheres composed of hydrogen, helium, and icy materials like water and methane. Neptune is the farthest planet from the sun and has extreme winds and weather.

1. THE OUTER SOLAR
SYSTEM & THE OORT
CLOUD
By Alex Wang & Nate Grams

2. JUPITER
Cool Facts:
One cool Fact is that Jupiter essentially acts as earths shield, drawing commits
heading towards the Earth and flings them into the sun.
A second fact is that Jupiter has a mass which is greater than the mass of all
of the other planets in our solar system combined even though it is composed
of gas
Perhaps the most interesting fact about Jupiter is that one of its
moons, Europa, is believed to have a subterranean salt water sea, therefor it
might have the neccicary elements needed for life.
Discovery:
No one can be sure when Jupiter was discovered as it is one of the five
planets that are visible with the naked eye. But what we can be sure about is
that Galileo was the first person to view Jupiter in detail through a telescope.

3. SATURN
Good things to know:
Saturn has a diameter of 120,536 km (at the equator.)
Saturn is the second biggest planet in our solar system in terms
of mass, weighing in at 5.85e26 kg.
Saturn is the sixth planet form the sun and its orbit brings it
1,429,400 AMU.s from the sun at any point.
Discovery:
Gallileo was the first person to observe Saturn and made the
discovery in 1610, but it wasn’t until 1659 that Christian Huygens
discovered that it actually had rings.

4. URANUS
Cool Facts:
Uranus’s Atmosphere, like the other big gas giants (Jupiter and Saturn) is
consisted mainly of Hydrogen and Helium but unlike Jupiter and Saturn’s
atmosphere Uranus’s atmosphere has more “icy material” in it’s atmosphere
such as water and methane.
Uranus has the coldest atmosphere of all the planets in our atmosphere with
atmospheric temperatures that can fall to -224C.
Discovery:
Uranus was Discovered on March 13th 1781 by Sir. William Herschel

5. NEPTUNE
Facts:
Since Pluto’s orbit sometimes crosses Neptune’s it is the farthest planet/planetish
object in our solar system from the sun for a while.
Neptune’s composition is similar to Uranus’ in the fact that it is made mostly of gasses
and “icy” materials such as water, ammonia, and methane.
Uranus’s blue color is partially due to the methane which absorbs red light but there is
still an unknown factor which makes Neptune have a bluish hue .
Like most gas planets Neptune has very extreme winds which can cause very intense
weather.
Like Jupiter and Saturn, Neptune radiates heat so in the end it ends up emitting twice
as much heat as it receives from the sun.
Like Uranus Neptune has rings and also like Uranus, Neptune’s rings are made out of
darker matter so they are harder to see and their composition is unknown.
Neptune’s three rings have been named, the first is called Adam which has been
divided into three prominent arks which have been named library, Equality, and

6. NEPTUNE (CONTINUED)
Neptune’s three rings have been named, the first is called Adam which has
been divided into three prominent arks which have been named
library, Equality, and Farternier.
The second ring is called Leverrier, and the third is called Galle
One of Neptune’s more prominent figures is The Great Dark Spot on it’s
surface which is about half the size of Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, which is
approximately the diameter of earth
Neptune’s Magnetic Field is like Uranus’s which is oddly oriented, this is
probably caused by the motions of conductive materials (probably water)
moving around it’s inner layers.

7. NEPTUNE’S SATELLITES
Neptune has 13 moons.
Naida, Thalassa, Despina, Galatea, Larissa, Proteus, Triton, Nereid, Halimede,
Sao, Laomedeia, Psamathe, and Neso.
Here is the distance they are from the Neptune, in order ( distance in
km), 48, 50, 53, 62, 74, 118, 355, 5509, 15728, 22422, 23571, 46695, 48387.

8. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Anon Anon. The Oort Cloud . 2012. Photograph. Anon, Anon.
. "Saturn." www.thenineplanet.com. N.p., 1994. Web. 3 May 2012.
http://nineplanets.org/saturn.html
Cessna , Abby. "When was Saturn discovered ." www.theuniversetoday.com. N.p., Nov.-
15-2009. Web. 3 May 2012. <http://www.universetoday.com/45087/when-
NASA, . "The Outer Solar System." NASA Science. NASA, N.D. Web. 2 May
2012. <http://
science.nasa.gov/planetary-science/focus-areas/outer-
solar-system/>.
Cain, Farser. "When was Uranus discovered ." The Universe today. . N.p., 11/27/09.
Web. 4 May 2012. <http://www.universetoday.com/46249/when-was-uranus-
discovered/>.