Planet Atmospheres and Magnetic Fields

Full window version (looks a little nicer). Click <Back> button to get back to small framed version with content indexes.

This data is from the National Space Science Data Center's Fact Sheet site. Click on a planet's name to bring up the fact sheet at NSSDC. I have put together a list of links to excellent tours of each planet. Click here to bring up that list.
Planet g vesc distance albedo temperature atm. press. atm. comp. rotation mag. field

(* gE) (km/s) (A.U.) (%) (K) (* Earth's)

(* Earth's)
Mercury 0.378 4.3 0.387 5.6 100 night,
590--725 day		 10-15 98% He, 2% H2 58.81 d 0.006
Venus 0.907 10.36 0.723 72 737 92 96.5% CO2, 3.5% N2,
0.015% SO2 		243.69 d 0.00
Earth 1.000 11.186 1.000 38.5 283--293 day 1.000 78.084% N2, 20.946% O2,
0.934% Ar, 0.035% CO2,
H2O highly variable (< 1%)		 23.9345 h 1.000
Mars 0.377 5.03 1.524 16 184--242 day 0.007--0.009 95.32% CO2, 2.7% N2
1.6% Ar, 0.13% O2,
0.08% CO, 0.021% H2O,
0.01% NO		 24.623 h 0.00
Jupiter 2.364 59.5 5.203 70 165 > > 100 89% H2, 11% He,
0.2% CH4, 0.02% NH3 		9.925 h 19,519
Saturn 0.916 35.5 9.539 75 134 > > 100 89% H2, 11% He,
0.3% CH4, 0.02% NH3 		10.50 h 578
Uranus 0.889 21.3 19.182 90 76 > > 100 89% H2, 11% He 17.24 h 47.9
Neptune 1.125 23.5 30.06 82 72 > > 100 89% H2, 11% He 16.11 h 27.0
Pluto 0.0675 1.1 39.53 14.5 50 0.003 CH4, N2 6.405 d 0.00
Notes: Surface gravity g is given in Earth gravities (1 gE = 9.803 m/s2); escape velocity is vesc; albedo is the percent of ALL of the Sun's energy hitting the planet that is reflected (100% would be perfect reflection); temperature and surface gravity for Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune are given at a depth where the atmospheric pressure = 1 Earth atmosphere; atmospheric pressure (atm. press.) is at the surface (> > 100 for the jovian planets); rotation is the sidereal rotation period, h = hours and d = days; magnetic field (mag. field) is the total strength (NSSDC gives strength in #gauss * Rplanet3, where Rplanet is the radius of the planet and Earth's strength = 0.3076 gauss * RE3 = 7.981* 1010 gauss.

last updated: 19 July 1997

Other planet links

Back to solar system chapter
Nick Strobel -- Email: strobel@lightspeed.net

(661) 395-4526
Bakersfield College
Physical Science Dept.
1801 Panorama Drive
Bakersfield, CA 93305-1219