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An ice planet or icy planet is a type of planet with an icy surface of volatiles such as water, ammonia, and methane. Ice planets consist of a global cryosphere. Under a geophysical definition of planet, the small icy worlds of the Solar System qualify as icy planets.
An ice giant is a giant planet composed mainly of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium, such as oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur. There are two ice giants in the Solar System: Uranus and Neptune.
Dark, cold and whipped by supersonic winds, ice giant Neptune is the eighth and most distant planet in our solar system. Neptune is the only planet in our solar system not visible to the naked eye.
Feb 26, 2020 · Learn how Webb will study the atmospheres, chemistry and weather of the ice giants, which are the least-explored planets in our solar system. See images of Uranus' tilted rings and Neptune's dark storms taken by Hubble and Voyager.
Dark, cold and whipped by supersonic winds, giant Neptune is the eighth and most distant major planet orbiting our Sun. More than 30 times as far from the Sun as Earth, Neptune is not visible to the naked eye. In 2011, Neptune completed its first 165-year orbit since its discovery.
Learn about Uranus and Neptune, the two icy worlds that are mostly water and have high-speed winds and stormy atmospheres. Find out how they differ from the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn and what we can observe from Earth and space.
Jun 24, 2019 · Uranus and Neptune are classified as ice giants because they have larger rocky, icy cores than gas, unlike Jupiter and Saturn. Learn how this terminology reflects the variations in the formation of the outer planets and our solar system.
