Compare Planet Families

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Learn the skill

Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars are rocky terrestrial planets. Jupiter and Saturn are gas giants. Uranus and Neptune are ice giants. These labels compare broad properties; an ice giant is not a solid ball you could skate around.

Worked example

Earth and Mars share the terrestrial group even though they are not identical. Jupiter and Neptune are both giant planets, but our table places them in different subgroups: gas giant and ice giant.

Terrestrial planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars. Gas giants: Jupiter, Saturn. Ice giants: Uranus, Neptune. Group labels do not show relative size. — A classification diagram is not a planet-size comparison.

A Classification Table

Terrestrial: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars. Gas giants: Jupiter, Saturn. Ice giants: Uranus, Neptune. All four giant planets have rings, though Saturn's are especially conspicuous. Use only the supplied grouping for these questions. This is a classification diagram, not a picture of relative planet sizes.

Question 1 How many terrestrial planets are listed? Answer

Question 2 Which pair belongs to the ice-giant group? Earth and Mars Uranus and Neptune Jupiter and Saturn

Question 3 Which statement follows from the table? Every planet is rocky Only Saturn has rings Jupiter and Neptune are different kinds of giant planet

Question 4 How many listed planets belong to either giant group? Answer

Question 5 What would you need to compare the planets' actual sizes? Only the order of their names Size measurements or a clearly labeled scale model The color of the text