| / English Dictionary |
GAS GIANT
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Any of the four outermost planets in the solar system; much larger than Earth and gaseous in nature (like Jupiter)
Synonyms:
gas giant; Jovian planet
Classified under:
Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)
Hypernyms ("gas giant" is a kind of...):
major planet; planet ((astronomy) any of the nine large celestial bodies in the solar system that revolve around the sun and shine by reflected light; Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto in order of their proximity to the sun; viewed from the constellation Hercules, all the planets rotate around the sun in a counterclockwise direction)
Instance hyponyms:
Jupiter (the largest planet and the 5th from the sun; has many satellites and is one of the brightest objects in the night sky)
Neptune (a giant planet with a ring of ice particles; the 8th planet from the sun is the most remote of the gas giants)
Saturn (a giant planet that is surrounded by three planar concentric rings of ice particles; the 6th planet from the sun)
Uranus (a giant planet with a ring of ice particles; the 7th planet from the sun has a blue-green color and many satellites)
Context examples:
Some moons around the gas giant planets in the outer solar system have cracked surfaces with evidence for ocean interiors – Jupiter's moon Europa and Saturn's moon Enceladus are two examples.
(Cracks in Pluto's moon could indicate it once had an underground ocean, NASA)
It was the 22nd flyby during which the solar-powered spacecraft collected science data on the gas giant, soaring only 2,175 miles (3,500 kilometers) above its cloud tops.
(NASA's Juno Navigators Enable Jupiter Cyclone Discovery, NASA)
Coming face-to-face with the gas giant, Juno will begin to unravel some of the greatest mysteries surrounding our solar system's largest planet, including the origin of its massive magnetosphere.
(Juno Peers Inside a Giant, NASA)
Juno also has detected a new radiation zone, just above the gas giant's atmosphere, near the equator.
(NASA's Juno Probes the Depths of Jupiter's Great Red Spot, NASA)
Using the new ESPRESSO instrument on ESO’s VLT in the Chilean Atacama Desert, the astronomers identified for the first time chemical variations on an ultra-hot gas giant planet.
(ESO Telescope Observes Exoplanet Where It Rains Iron, ESO)
The enormous gravitational force of such a massive body would accrete a gas envelope during formation, ballooning the planet to a gas giant the size of Neptune or even Jupiter.
(Astronomers confounded by massive rocky world, NASA)
Measuring the abundances of these chemicals in exoplanetary atmospheres is something extraordinary, considering that we have not been able to do the same for giant planets in our solar system yet, including Jupiter, our nearest gas giant neighbour, said Luis Welbanks, lead author of the study and PhD student at the Institute of Astronomy.
(Water common – yet scarce – in exoplanets, University of Cambridge)
By observing non-visible infrared light hundreds of miles above the gas giant, scientists found temperatures to be much higher in certain latitudes and longitudes in Jupiter’s southern hemisphere, where the spot is located.
(Jupiter’s Great Red Spot Likely a Massive Heat Source, NASA)
NGTS-1b is a gas giant, similar to Jupiter and of comparable volume and mass, but its parent star is about half the diameter and mass of the Sun, making this the most massive planet orbiting an M-dwarf ever discovered.
(Astronomers report dwarf star with unexpectedly giant planet, Wikinews)
Early science results from NASA’s Juno mission to Jupiter portray the largest planet in our solar system as a complex, gigantic, turbulent world, with Earth-sized polar cyclones, plunging storm systems that travel deep into the heart of the gas giant, and a mammoth, lumpy magnetic field that may indicate it was generated closer to the planet’s surface than previously thought.
(First Science Results from NASA’s Juno Mission, NASA)
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