Lecture 38: The Ice Giants - Uranus and Neptune

The Ice Giants Uranus and Neptune are the outermost major planets of our

Solar System. Internally they small rocky cores surrounded by deep,

slushy ice mantles and shallow hydrogen atmospheres, quite unlike the

massive cores and deep metallic hydrogen mantles of Jupiter and Saturn.

This lecture describes their basic properties: the origin of their vivid

blue/green colors, their composition, structure, and weather. At the

end we'll contrast and compare their properties to those of the Gas

Giants. Recorded 2007 Nov 15 in 1000 McPherson Lab on the Columbus

campus of The Ohio State University.