Atmosphere of Jovian and Terrestrial Planets - Essay Example

Atmosphere of Jovian and Terrestrial Planets al Affiliation The solar system is made up eight planets with the exception ofPluto. These planets are classified as either terrestrial or Jovian planets. Terrestrial planets comprise of Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune make up the Jovian planets. Atmosphere involves the gases that surround the surface of any given planet (Runcorn, 1988). Interior parts of terrestrial planets are made up of metals while their surface is rocky.

They are known to be very close to the sun. Mercury is closest to the sun and has almost no atmosphere as it receives high amount of heat. Venus is covered by carbon dioxide. This absorbs high amount of heat which relatively increases surface temperatures (Corfield, 2007). Earth is the only planet that supports life. Its atmosphere is made of different layers that include troposphere, thermosphere stratosphere, and mesosphere. It comprises of different percentages of moving air that is 78.2% of nitrogen, 1.

0% of inert gases, 21.1% of oxygen, 0.04% and water vapor. In Mars the atmosphere is thin comprising of small traces of nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide argon and small traces of water vapor (Corfield, 2007). Jovian planets, also known as outer planets are large in sizes and do not have surfaces that are in solid state. They are far from the sun and therefore cooler than the inner planets. The inner part of these planets is made up rocks at the core. Their atmosphere comprises of helium and nitrogen components.

The first and the main difference between terrestrial and Jovian planet is the size where terrestrial planet is smaller in size. Secondly are their surfaces. Terrestrial planet it’s made of rocks while Jovian planet is made up of gases. Third is that the atmosphere of terrestrial planet is mainly made of nitrogen and carbon dioxide whereas the atmosphere of Jovian planet comprises of hydrogen and helium. Fourthly, terrestrial planets are nearer to the sun as compared to Jovian planets (Runcorn, 1988).

Jovian planet is also known to rotate at faster rate than terrestrial planet. References Corfield, R. M. (2007). Lives of the planets: A natural history of the solar system. New York: Basic Books. Runcorn, S. K. (1988). The Physics of the planets: Their origin, evolution and structure. Chichester: Wiley.