• Question: how can we see planets if ther mayd out of gas?

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      Asked by minecraft creeper to Rob, Martin, Elizabeth on 6 Mar 2015.
      • Photo: Martin Wieczysty

        Martin Wieczysty answered on 6 Mar 2015:

        Why is the sky blue when it is made out of gas?
        Basically, light from the sun causes the electrons withing the gas molecules to vibrate, which “Scatters” the light. This is why the sky is blue. So for other planets, such as our nearest gas giant Jupiter – the suns rays are scattered by the gas molecules, giving an orangy colour.

        Also the Hubble telescope has different sensors that let us see “colours” that the human eye cannot see called ultra violet and infra red. This lets us see collections of gas and dust in space – look up the crab nebula or the horse head nebula.
        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horsehead_Nebula

      • Photo: Elizabeth Cooper

        Elizabeth Cooper answered on 6 Mar 2015:

        The planets made from gas simply gets denser with depth. What we see when looking at these planets is the tops of clouds higher in the atmosphere.

        Jupiter is about 90% hydrogen and 10% helium!

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