Lecture 24: The Jovian Planets

We turn our attention to the Giant Planets of the outer Solar System: the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn, and the ice giants Uranus and Neptune. We will review their structure and properties, and then examine their systems of moons, with special attention to the giant moons. While the Jovian planets themselves seem unlikely places to hunt for life in our Solar System, a few of their largest moons may be more promising than appears at first sight. We'll explore this further in subsequent lectures in this unit. Recorded live on 2009 Oct 28 in Room 1005 Smith Laboratory on the Columbus campus of The Ohio State University.