ice giants
Frigid outer planets
Ice giants are the two outermost planets in our solar system—Uranus and Neptune—distinguished from the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn by their composition.
While gas giants are mainly hydrogen and helium, ice giants contain heavier elements like water, ammonia, and methane in icy or fluid states.
The term "ice" refers to these volatile compounds rather than frozen water.
The Voyager 2 spacecraft remains the only probe to have visited both ice giants.
- planetaryOf or relating to worlds
- solar systemStar and orbiting bodies
- outer planetsPlanets past the asteroids
- heliumLightest noble gas
- atmosphereGaseous layer around planets
orbit · Miranda · Neptune · hydrogen · icy · Titania · axial tilt · Uranus · frozen · Triton · Oberon · deep space · astronomy · ring system · cores · discovery · space exploration · astrophysics
ice giantsgas giants
Planets of hydrogen, helium
rocky planets · terrestrial planets · dwarf planets · Jupiter · Saturn
ice, ices, iced, icing, icier, iciest, icily, iciness, giant